alcohol & pregnancy

[swampmonster]

I am 20 weeks pregnant & desperate for just a little alcohol would a can of cider be too much with a meal?

I was immensely careful with both eating and not drinking with my first two pregnancies, both of which ended with major problems at delivery/ postpartum. With the subsequent six I drank normally (not heavily, maybe a glass of wine a night) and had no problems at all.

Very unscientific but still.

Moderate drinking in pregnancy is not harmful. The hysteria around alcohol for pregnant women is about misogyny not public health, so have your cider and enjoy it.

I have had a couple of glasses of bubbly over Christmas/ NY. I really don't think having alcohol in small amounts and rarely can be any worse for the baby than many other environmental factors which we inevitably come into contact with every day (e.g. air pollution). You have to remember that 30, 40 years ago women were being officially advised to have a glass of wine to relax in the evenings while they were pregnant. And that pregnant women across the continent drink small amounts regularly. And they aren't all having babies with FAS. Drinking frequently or binge drinking is another thing, of course.

Thanks for all your tales, reassuring to me :)

I've tried the non-alcoholic versions of things and just dont see the point, so I'll stick to lemonade and fizzy vimto thanks.

I dont really want anything alcoholic at the moment, but if I do in the future, I'll limit it to with a meal!

As if I'm not feeling guilty enough about the drinks I had before I knew I was pregnant, just started watching a prog called "p**sed and pregnant" about Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.

:(

sal a friend who's a doc told me you'd have to drink virtually a bottle of whisky a day for foetal alcohol syndrome! She may have over exaggerated but she said it was far more common In alcoholics.

I usually wait till 12 weeks ten if all is ok have the odd glass of wine (2-3 per week max). My doc said this was fine, but midwife is v anti it.

Think you just have to use your discretion and only have what your comfortable with, without going overboard! So put those samba shots aside

I havent been drinking much through this pg ( one - two units a month), but I spent 2 weeks at the in laws over Xmas and I did drink a bit.
I had baileys in my hot chocolate twice and 3 glasses of wine. I know it is technically over the 1-2 units a week limit, but since I have been and will continue to be under for the rest of the pg, I am not too worried. I know there is no official safe limit, but I think moderation is the key.

I'm too early to consider it at 7 weeks but will have the odd ale and glass of wine on a weekend if I fancy it when I get past 12 weeks. Wine tastes like vinegar at the moment though!

I take sip of my husband's wine every now and then. Do still want alcohal but am able to resist, occasionally like on christmas day I will have quarter of a glass, which is usually less than what people around me think I should have. Saying that I would not admitt this to my midwife.

I tried to have the odd glass of fizzy over Christmas but couldn't get more than about 50ml down before starting to feel wasted, and not in a good way... but I'm having twins so I think my liver has anyway got a lot to cope with. I suspect that if you listen to what your body's telling you, you won't go far wrong.

I have been having a weekly glass of wine or two since the end of the first trimester, and feel very relaxed about it.

I have been having one unit a week and yes, I measure it out religiously!

Just to pick up on things a couple of people have said, interspersing alcohol with water or having it with a meal MAKES NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL to the amount of alcohol you're drinking. If you have a 200ml glass of 12% wine then water / a meal does not magically reduce the amount of alcohol. You are drinking 24ml of alcohol no matter what.

But that's bullshit rhinestone.

Damage caused by alchohol is to do with concentrations of it in your blood. Alchohol occurs naturally in foods and drinks - so by your argument you should be adding up all those tiny percentages too.

It's obvious that it's not bright to drink so much that you feel drunk: if your cognitive capacity is impaired then it's reasonable to expect the baby will feel it. Sipping at a drink all night, interspersed with food will avoid the spike in blood alcohol level.

That's rather a rude response Footprints.

And x amount of alcohol is x amount of alcohol no matter what.

Yes - but in the context of making decisions about consuming alchohol in pregnancy, although government guidelines are given only in terms of units per day/ units per week - it is common sense that the speed with which you drink is a factor in terms of impact on the pregnancy.

Eating sherry trifle, some Christmas pudding, a liquer chocolate and brandy infused gravy over the course of Christmas day will barely blip your blood alcohol level - whereas saving all the alcohol and downing it on an empty stomach might make you (and baby) quite tipsy.

I had a small glass of red every night with supper, from about 20 weeks. DS is fine.

I used to guzzle far more than the recommended limit for women, and in fact when I didn't know I was pregnant I got wasted a couple of times.

Oddly, I don't miss the alcohol like I thought I would. I have had a couple of cans of lager on a very odd occasion but I just don't appreciate the racing heart, wobbly legs, flushed face and fast, loud breathing it seems to give me now.

Oh yeah, and I read a book about Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and that's really put me off boozing.

Angel and boomerang I think its foetal alcohol spectrum I'm more worried about.

I didnt find out I was pregnant till I was 9wks, a couple of weeks after a friends funeral and considerable wake. I drank A LOT that day and I feel awful about it now.

I had no signs/symptoms at all, and only found out during a test for a UTI!

My boyf tells me not to worry, that it'll all be OK, but I have such terrible luck I know it wont be.

Sal1980 I can sympathise with that... I had a negative test at about 4 weeks, followed by a 'period' (it must have been implantation but wasn't that light!) followed by a week celebrating DH & my first wedding anniversary. Hot tub, sauna, boozy lunches followed by boozy dinners, liver pâté & who knows what else? And why the hell not? I clearly wasn't knocked up!

So far at 28 weeks, bump is doing just fine, and I've allowed myself the occasional spritzer/small glass of wine here and there too. Except Xmas day: 1 small glass at lunch; 1 in the evening.

We can't change the past - but can make sure we're on it from here on in.

Have you read Zoe Williams's book on pregnancy? She devotes pages to ranting about how there's no medical evidence proving that drinking in moderation during pregnancy is in any way damaging. In fact she quotes a fetal medicine expert who says that alcohol won't pass through the placenta if it's consumed at a rate that allows it to be metabolised by the liver. He/ she (can't remember) states that it's much more concerning when people drink when they're breastfeeding.

I'm not saying it's right but it's interesting reading.

I've always found on the occasions where I've thought 'oh I'll have half a shandy or a bucks fizz' or whatever it may be I've always not even enjoyed it, all I can taste is the alcohol, so its ended up down the sink.
But it's nice to remind yourself that you're really not missing much.

There's a programme of bbc3 called Pissed and Pregnant, omg there are some very ignorant women out there!

sal1980 honestly try not to worry, this happens all the time, I was 7 wks when I found out I was pg with DS, I was on holiday before that getting drunk for 7 days and 7 nights. I had a sore throat and found that Dissarono really soothed it, I was using it like cough medicine! Lol
Anyway DS is totally fine.

The same thing happened to my friend too, she was 10 weeks when she found out with dd1 following Xmas and new year celebrations which involved more than just alcohol. Dd is one of the brightest kids I have ever known and on the gifted list at her school.

I used to work with kids with FAS and from what I could gather of their mothers I would imagine they'd drank throughout their pregnancies, not just given up when they found out at 2-3 months pg

Check the number of units on the back of the bottle: my favourite cider has something like 4 in a 500ml bottle.

But my mw said the occasional unit or two is fine, and I will be having a wine glass full of cider with tonight's roast dinner. I'd much rather have a small glass of the good stuff than pints of the "no alcohol" version: I can always switch to apple juice afterwards!

Thats what I was watching...Pissed & Pregnant...oh I sobbed and sobbed that night.

Even before I found out, I;d started to go off booze, I just had no thirst for it...oh hindsight is a wonderful thing. Got through works xmas do on a couple of glasses of wine - i thought it was the food making me feel ill!!

Thank you all for your comments, my OH thinks im being a worry monger and that all this stress is worse than half a cider once or twice, or the booze Ive already drunk before I knew I was pregnant.

I will do the best I can for the rest of it, and what will be will be.

Had my 13wk scan and all is well, or appears to be :D

My view was that I wouldn't give my baby alcohol to drink when he was born, so I wouldn't force him to consume it when I was pg. Simple as that.