Pregnant and enjoying the odd alcoholic beverage??

[Leilababyno1]

I am 20 weeks preggers and have recently started enjoying the odd drink. By drink I mean, a small glass of wine/bubbly with the sunday lunch...How do other mums-to-be feel about occasional drinking during pregnancy?

I know that you are advised to abstain during the first trimester, but after this point does anyone feel that the occasional alcoholic beverage is ok?

Eloquently put JoEW.

I too am attempting not too get too stressed and when I said that to my mw she said she worried about how stressed women were made to feel by the continual criticism of others and the barrage of conflicting advice.

I agree JoEW - in fact I reckon that for me personally - if I completely cut out ALL alcohol then I WOULD be stressed and it would actually have adverse affects. I see nothing wrong with one or two glasses of wine per week, like most of the people on this thread. It's all part of a balanced diet IMO.

I enjoy a glass or two a week, I've done it throughout all my pregnancies (not in 1st 12 weeks) and enjoy it.

I had about half a glass of white today at a Christmas lunch - I was allowing myself one glass, and then the waitress topped it up and rather than try to judge how much I'd had, I gave it to my colleague. I also started to drink a glass of red wine last week at another Christmas do, and I just didn't want it enough to finish it. I've been finding that a lot - I want one drink, but when I get it I can't finish it. Still, I've had a glass every couple of weeks throughout my pregnancy, including a glass of port that gave me horrible heartburn, and I'm not worried one little bit by it. I don't think it's enough to cause any damage.

I started this thread and I am sorry if it has become slightly heated. I agree, that everybody has a choice and if you choose to totally abstain from alcohol OR alternatively choose to have the 'odd' drink, that is completely up to you! Nobody should be preached to either way...Congratulations to all on their lovely bumps! I had my 20 week scan today, we found out that we are expecting a healthy baby girl!!! Very happy! I made sure I had a toast with a scrummy glass of pink champagne!

I never drank when pregnant. I had to pretend to sip champagne at my mums wedding as no one knew I was pg at that stage.

I drank while breastfeeding, wouldn't have survived it otherwise.

I only found out that I'm pregnant a week ago and have chosen not to drink during my pregnancy. However what's worrying me is that I had my works Christmas do about a week before I found out and drank quite a lot on that night. I'm feeling very guilty now and would never have done that if I'd known. Has anyone else been in this situation? xxx

bettyboo83 in the first two weeks post conception I had about four fairly heavy drinking sessions (not actually the norm for me in such a short period of time btw) before I realised I was pregnant, when I stopped. During this period the embryo was not implanted and therefore not connected to my blood supply. So although I could have worried about this I choose not too, there is absolutely nothing I could do to change those circumstances and I had absolutely no way of knowing I was pregnant. Fortunately I'm now 22 weeks and everything is going well. You'll find that lots of people have stories about drinking in the first few weeks before finding out they are pregnant, all of which involve no adverse consequences.

Regarding drinking through the rest of pregnancy my ante-natal notes have a section on alcohol which advises abstention for the first 12 weeks then no more than 1-2 units once or twice a week througout the rest of pregnancy.

I'm not drinking regularly, post 12 weeks I've had perhaps 2-3 white wine spritzers that were very low on wine heavy on spritz and and yesterday I had a small glass of rose. On each occassion I've drank with food as I decided that is preferable. I feel fine about this as it's within the guidelines and fits in with the research I've read.

I have. Again I was about 20 weeks like you before I even FELT like having a drink - before that it just didn't appeal. I took this as I sign my body was telling me it was ok to have the odd one as I started fancying it again. I have stuck to the 1-2 units 1-2 times a week limit, but some weeks I have less or none at all. I am 37 weeks now and everything is fine, me and baby and perfectly helathy as far as they can tell. (Although the little bugger was breech at last MW's apt ) I am sure it will be fine. xx

I have had the odd small (less than 175 ml as I can't get the full 175 down) about twice a week pretty much since I got pregnant. I askd my specialist who helped me conceive and her attitude was that 1-2 units 1- 2 times per week throughout was fine and in fact, she recommends a small glass in the last weeks when you're struggling to sleep and relax.

I have avoided spirits simply because I think the alcohol goes down much faster and I'd rather give my body time to process it before it hits the baby. Similarly, if it was summer, I'd probably drink shandies rather than beer to slow down the consumption rate. With wine it hasn't been a problem as I find without even trying the odd 100ml takes about an hour or more to drink.

I feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever.

My Tommy's guidebook says that while the NICE advice is to not drink at all, if you choose to drink, have no more than 1-2 units, once or twice a week.

One unit is, for example:

One 125 ml glass of wine (but must be 9% alcohol, and a lot of wines are higher than that)
One 25 ml serving of spirits (under 40% proof)
Half a pint of beer that is under 4%

The key is to have lower alcohol drinks. E.g. Becks Vier is 4% alcohol, and many real ales, if you like that sort of thing, can be around the 3.8% level. Guinness draught (which I also like, although I don't know many women that do!) is 4.1 - 4.3% - so have less than a pint to compensate.

When pregnant with DD1 I drank nothing as even the smell of wine made me wretch. Now 34 weeks with number 2 and I have the odd glass red - maybe once a week. In fact it's actually less than 1/2 a small measure topped up with water. I really like it but neet it's too strong.

I agree that some people can easily drink more than they think. Our normal wine glasses easily hold 1/3 of a bottle and that ain't one glass.

I will have the odd drink over Christmas too. But I won't feel guilty as I don't believe I'm being wreckless.

Alcohol in small amounts can be known to keep blood pressure down. And whilst I am not saying you should purposefully drink for this reason, it just shows that very moderate drinking is not necessarily harmful at all. (an OB/GYN told me this btw)

My GP said not to be too strict about this. I didn't drink before the 20 week scan, and straight afterwards went to the pub and had a full half of 3.5 real ale, wild!
Have been having one of the same every week since.

Difficult if you're not aware your pregnant for a bit (as I wasn't) - poor baby must have had a rough first 6 weeks of it as I was spending most of my dispensible income on booze ... :(

Since the 2nd trimester I've had maximum 2 small glasses per week and feel happy with that. Baby (now 34 weeks) is a good size, active, etc and no worries from any of the medical people I've seen.

Still, can't help that niggling worry -
I was reading a book that warned NOT to drink EVER during pregnancy and got genuinelly distressed about having given my child FAS. Everyone assures me that I've been very responsible, but paranoia is horrid.