Fetal alcohol syndrome

[CocoE]

Hi,

I am 5 weeks pregnant and really worried I've damaged my child already. When I was 3 weeks I had two big drinking nights where I drank half a bottle of wine and the other night a few glasses of wine and a couple vodka shots. I am now considering terminating the pregnancy as I think that would have been a critical time in the embryo's neural development.
I'm not interested in hearing about anyone who drank and had healthy babies, because I know there's plenty of those.It does not make me feel better about it. What would make me feel better is if I couldn't find anyone who had an unhealthy child after this kind of drinking at the wrong time in the pregnancy. Does anyone out there have children with FAS or know any more about this? Everything I read on the internet makes me feel terminating the pregnancy is the best thing to do.

I conceived on holiday then immediately started a secondment abroad where late night drinking was de rigeur after 14 hour work days. I drank SHED LOADS, and put my strange symptons down to hangovers stress. Dd is nearly 7 and is absolutely fine!

In olden days most women did not find out about the PG til much later. Please don't worry! FAS is linked to mothers who drink A LOT throughout their pregnancy - not those who had one too many before they realised.

Thank you all. Yes, my DH does think I am crazy for wanting to take such extreme measures. Especially after all the time and tears spent trying to conceive. Its been a year since we had a miscarriage and we just did two rounds of IUI so its not like I don't want this one badly. I just don't want to bring a child into the world that's going to have a hard time the rest of his/her life. Anyway, I will see a GP about it this week.

Please try not to worry the reason that there aren't any stories to tell about people damaging their babies because of early pregnancy drinking is because they generally don't cause any damage. I actually find it difficult to think of anyone who hasn't drunk anything during the early weeks of pregnancy. I'm not an expert but from what you say I would have thought that FAS is very very very very very very unlikely.

It sounds a little like this is a diversion to stop you worrying about another miscarriage. When you're used to being in control of everything in your life pregnancy can be a bit of a shock to the system, but although medical science can help us identify the risks it can't actually guarantee that we will all end up with babies who will never have health problems or who's lives will turn out to be perfect (whatever a perfect life may be), we all just do the best we can and the vast majority of people manage to have healthy happy babies so the odds are definitely in our favour.

Congratulations on the pregnancy, I hope your GP can provide you with some much needed reassurance .

CoCoE, you won't have done your baby any dmage. Please please do not worry about it. By all means do see the GP but until then don't fret.

CocoE, I think your concern is an understandable byproduct of what you've been through to conceive, but you have to accept that life is what it is. There is no chance whatsoever you have damaged your baby by having been on the (mild) lash twice. What you are worried about is that, now that you are pregnant (and congratulations, btw), you are as vulnerable as we all are as parents or parents-to-be. You can't mitigate against that, it simply it what is it.

I remember being absolutely terrified during early pregnancy - I even gave up a job in Sweden because I couldn't face the prospect of having to get home from there if I had a miscarriage - and I'd never even had a miscarriage. These are not rational days. I thought getting out of a sportscar might cause a miscarriage, I kid you not. Talk through your fears.

Whilst I would certainly not advocate heavy drinking (not that you have) my dnephews and niece are the biological offspring of someone who drank severely during all three pregnancies. One has an official diagnosis of FAS but I actually see no evidence of it in any of them. And I am talking heavy, prolonged, constant drinking throughout each pregnancy.

There is nothing you can do that can prevent a child potentially having a difficult life, or potentially having an easy life. Think of your own. I'm sure it's been a mixture of good times and bad. There is no such thing as perfection, you can only do the best you can. So talk through your anxieties with someone and celebrate (with ginger ale!) your news!

Coco, I can really understand where you're coming from. We had 2 mcs last year and had been trying for about 10 months this year to get pregnant. I finally got pregnant in October. To cut a long story short, I thought my period had turned up (it was implantation bleeding) so had 3 glasses of wine in one night before I realised I was pregnant.

It may sound irrational to others but I was so angry and upset with myself for drinking. I'm Mrs Careful when it comes to pregnancy and always just want to do everything 'right', especially as DD2 was in intensive care after she was born and also because of the mcs. I did loads of reading, all of which freaked me, and eventually 'phoned NOFAS - the Fetal Alcohol people (don't know how to do link but you can google it). I spoke to a brilliant woman there who put my mind at rest. I'm now 10 weeks and I'm fine about the whole thing. I needed to obsess about it for a while and really push to find out the worst but, after speaking to the organisation, I felt completely reassured and I've been able to enjoy the pregnancy (whilst obsessing about every other twinge, of course).

Good luck.

NOFAS

cocoE, so sorry to hear about all you've been through to get this far. Hope your GP is sensible and understanding but be reassured, the reason no-one is posting stories of babies being harmed by a couple of sessions in early pregnancy is because it just doesn't happen.

EVERY single study into drinking in pregnancy that has found evidence of harm, has only found that damage in the children of alcoholics. There has never been a case of FAS found in a child whose mother was not an alcoholic. That's the science.

To set your mind at rest on the millions of other things people will tell you to worry about, here's the link the the Food Standards Agency guidelines on eating and drinking during pregnancy. I wish you healthy, happy babies

Hi I just wanted to answer your post. I had the same thing happne. I had been out with my sister on a VERY heavy nights drinking..I mean a good few (5 !!!) bottles of wine between the two of us, took neurofen the next day for my hangover. And spent the first few weeks terrified. I spoke to my midwife and the gp and they said that there was very little chance that any damge could have been done at such an early stage. Fetal alcohol syndrome affects babies of mums who have drank consistently a lot over the whole pregnancy..I am sure you will be fine !! Honealty I know exactly how you feel. ! but u must try to stop worrying !!!

Talk to your doctor/ midwife now and they will give you peace of mind....

You poor thing! It sounds like you've got a lot on your mind, but please don't worry too much.

Please rest assured that many, many women party hard until they realise they're pregnant.

Oh gosh, I went to a music festival and a wedding between conception and pregnancy test. Both were big, heavy nights and it has barely bothered me.

My thinking is - if a couple of heavy nights lead to two-headed babies, then most of us in the world would have two heads.

I think that for FAS to be an issue we'd have to be drinking a bottle of vodka most nights throughout pregnancy.

I'm sure you'll be fine, honey x x

Please don't worry, ((I too did similar in very early pregnency before I knew I was pregnant - but I know you're not interested in that))

I'm a medic, I've been looking for a site to explain why not to worry to you and have found this

When an egg is fertilised the "corpus luteum" is stimulated to stop your normal period and prepare the uterus for implantation of the fetus. The corpus luteum continues to be the energy supply for the fetus until the placenta has had a chance to develope and the fetus is exposed to your blood supply. This is at around 6-8 weeks.

So at the stages of pregnancy that you're describing the alcohol you consumed won't have been risking your pregnancy.

Good luck.

Hi CocoE.

I work as a community alcohol practitioner and associate FAS with physically dependent drinkers - women who are drinking daily or nearly daily, sometimes up to 200 units per week over a prolonged period. As someone else said, the embryo will barely have had time to implant.

If it makes you feel any less anxious, I unwittingly went on two binge drinking sessions before I found out I was pregnant as well and despite my profession, the idea of an abortion didn't even enter my head.

I think Lucy101 makes a really good point - you simply cannot control every single thing over the next 8 months. Life just isn't like that.

I think my best advice would be to try and relax and enjoy your pregnancy should you decide to continue. Try and let go of the need for total control because it truly is an illusion!

All the best xx

I agree and endorse all the wise and well-worded responses above. I think that everyone on this thread has given you, CocoE, some excellent advice.
It's a pity that you say (rather abruptly) that you don't want any tales of positive outcomes - this does seem to suggest that you were seeking people to agree and legitimise your thinking re: terminating your pregnancy.
I think this is perhaps further supported by the fact that since you posted seeking advice you haven't responded to any of the mountains of reassuring advice that has been offered - was it perhaps not the kind of response you were wanting?

I think (in the nicest possible way) that you need to have a good examination of your motivations behind your anxiety, your thoughts of termination, and perhaps most significantly, the responses you wished to (but didnt) receive on this thread.

Finally, and in contravention of your rules on responses, I really must let you know that you won't have done any harm at all to what was, at the time of drinking, no more than a blastocyst (a microscopic collection of cells floating free of you and separate to your bloodstream and any alcohol in it). I have worked with alcoholic mothers and mothers on crack cocaine - some had babies on the FAS spectrum, others had healthy babies...You are NOT one of those young women. You have no need whatsoever to pursue this line of worry, so please try and take heart. I'm 5 months pregnant with my first, and despite having witnessed the horrors of FAS first-hand at work as a substance misuse worker, Im happy to say that I can get it in proportion and so I'm not scared about the several binges I had before I knew I was pg at 8 weeks, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the occasional glass of mulled wine (and can't wait til my xmas day glass of fizz).

I really hope you can find some peace and relaxation this christmas.