The demon booze - did you, didn't you or how much did you cut back on when TTC?

[confuseddoiordonti]

Hi,

We are currently TTC (well, will be officially after hospital appt which should hopefully be in a few weeks) and I was wondering how many of you have stopped drinking altogether when TTC? Or, are there a lot of you who are carrying on as before when it comes to drinking and other unfriendly babymaking activities. There seem to be two camps - the medical one which says NO booze whatsoever if you are TTC and the other which is more like RL, where people stop once they find out they are.

Me and DH are not heavy drinkers (rarely drink in the week at all) but we do enjoy trips to the pub or bottles of wine etc at the weekend and, to be honest, neither of us want to stop this because we are TTC. (Make the most of the freedom while you can!)

So, I'd like to ask people who are in the same boat (whether it's with the first baby or the fifth) if they have cut back and how important you think it is to cut back (or how it isn't massively important unless you drink like a fish ALL the time.)

Thanks!
Confused

I'll not be drinking for the last 2 weeks of the month, when I could theoretically be pregnant. But the first 2 weeks are fair game I reckon. Not caning it obviously, but a few drinks.

Don't stop what you usually do confused. Doesn't sound like you are heavy drinkers anyway. If I'd stopped in the 2 week wait and/or for every month till my BFP, I'd've gone bonkers. It took 18 months to get the BFP that led to DS2. You need to be relaxed too and if a glass or three of the old vino blanco assists, then no one will shoot you for it. Its prob a different story if you are doing IVF I expect though.

I have to say, my "I'll stop" bit will no doubt depend on how long this getting pregnant lark goes on for! And whether there are any very important social occasions.

I take heart from a friend of mine's experience. She tried and tried and tried to get pregnant. Finally she gave up and spent the holidays drinking and eating everything she shouldn't.

Result? Pregnancy.

With DD I did what muser was saying and only drank in the run up to ovulation or thereabouts. I was pretty strict about it which surprises me now looking back

This time round I'm going to carry on drinking but not shedloads - but will have a few glasses of vino on 2ww as one of the things that stressed me out last time ttc was feeling like my life was on hold waiting for it to happen.

I'm on a wacky low-carb diet at the mo though so not getting pissed every night drinking as much as I normally would.

I also heard that no alcohol gets through to the baby til about 6 weeks gestation as before that the embryo is sustained by the corpus luteum and not the placenta, but I hav no idea how true this is.

(if it's relevant at all I didn't touch a drop the whole 9 months I was pregnant)

Thank you ladies! Answers like these are just what I wanted to hear! I had looked up similar on MN and found one thread (will post link if I can find it) with people talking about how they gave up, didn't drink much in the first place etc etc and it does make you wonder if you are taking the whole thing seriously enough!

I agree that the 2WW would drive me even more insane if I was teetotal, and have also read bits and bats about how it wouldn't affect the foetus at that early stage anyway - like you said goulsareloud. I think it would be very easy for the whole TTC business to take over your life (and it could take months or years very easily to concieve) and that surely isn't heathy either...?

Hmmm, might pour myself a glass of wine to celebrate