alcohol in pregnancy would you worry about tipple?

[pokeypants]

Im half way through pregnancy and feeling well in general, in first trimestar i felt awful and obviously last thing i wanted was alcohol so abstained completely. Now I am back to normal and so is my taste for wine! I have always had the attitude that if i deprive myself i will want something more so i just go with the flow and allow myself the odd tipple/ which is a glass or two of wine of an evening. I dont get drunk wouldn't dream of drinking in excess, but i know the latest advice is avoid alcohol all together, probably because of those who continue getting plastered through pregnancy and damage their unborn babies. My first pregnancy I didn't touch a drop throughout and second had the odd glass same as this time, both were good weights, big healthy babies and growing into very bright children. What do others think?

I agree with an earlier poster, Becks Blue is ace, and tastes to me exactly like real beer, although I was starting to miss wine too, but despite the midwife saying a glass a week is fine I've avoided it. Had one about 18 weeks in and felt so horrifically guilty I didn't finish it.

However... it's my 30th this weekend and I really wanted to be able to have a glass of fizz and have found this after some googling:
www.alcoholfree.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=2_46_17&products_id=615
(not sure how to paste links)
It's 'wine' made from real grapes by a Spanish company I think, and it's 0% abv but tastes like the real thing, which I was hugely sceptical of when I bought it. They do a white and a red too; the white is spot on, the red is a bit thin tasting - like red wines made in England taste.

But if you have a craving for the flavour and don't mind sticking to white, they do a great job and no risk..

My mum was told to drink Guinness when pg with my sister and I in the 80's. I don't know how often it was suggested she had it. Surely you don't get as much iron from Guinness as from iron tablets though? Or is that just because I'm on 600mg a day?
And yes you're right Jenner, I work in a pub and that was one of the first things we all found that the stink isn't masked anymore. But then we don't need to wash our hair when we get home anymore so it's not all bad!

alcohol free wine

No I doubt you get as much iron from Guinness as you do from a tablet, but several of my friends told me that taking iron tablets when pregnant had had not very nice side effects, so I'd rather go with a Guinness now and then.
Both my mum and mil drank Guinness after they had me and my DH whilst they bf, and so did I with my son, and would breastfeed him after I'd had a bit of it. So little goes across in the milk I wasn't worried at all.
The ban on alcohol IMO is because health professionals believe the majority of the the general public lack any sense whatsoever. Who is their right mind is going to get drunk whilst (knowingly) pregnant? But some do, and they prob think its ok. So I think it's trying to protect those few, that the none at all recommendation has come about.

It's personal choice isn't it, like whether to start weaning at 4 or 6 months. Another whole can of worms!!!

thanks lastone! (how do you post links?)

There's an explanation just down there under the comment box.

Cakebump..that is true chocolate brings no benefit to baby nor does it to the mummy, hence me not eating it,...I find quite easy to stay away from anything that is unhealthy, but then again I am a bit of a healthfreak and sports nut..so been living like that for decades.
what I do find hard to stay away from is riding my horses and competing eventing, but I judge the risk is to big for that...

All the Doctors and HCP's I have discussed this with have told me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a glass or two of wine a week when pregnant (after the first trimester). Best had with food. The amount that would cross to the baby would be miniscule. Like other posters have said because there is no clear guidance on the safe limit and concern that dumb people will not know when to stop the advice is abstinence. As I am not dumb and I know when to stop I will have the occasional glass of wine and OP - if that relaxes you then you go ahead and do the same.

There have been recent studies linked to behavior of children of mothers who drank moderately in pregnancy showing improvements in their behavior. This is probably more linked to socioeconomic status than anything else but it's research that works for me. And more convincing that any of the research that show low levels of alcohol being damaging. I find it really patronising to be told not to do something just because I am not considered sensible enough to know when enough is enough. When presented with real risk (ie Listeria) i will adjust behaviors but otherwise I am a firm believer in a little of what you fancy does both you and the baby good.

Just out of interest, where is the advice for complete abstinence coming from? I've never heard that till today and wasn't told that by my MW or GP. Though maybe they have deemed me sensible enough not to go over the top.

I'm pregnant in France and have 3-4 small glasses of wine a week at a maximum of one glass in one day. And I mean slamm French glasses - so about 120ml.

When I was pregnant with DD1 my OB GYN actually told me to have a glass of champagne to celebrate the 12 week scan, as had miscarried on previous occasions. When he said this I asked for clarification on drinking alcohol during pregnancy and he said there's nothing wrong, as far as they know, with a glass of wine / port over a 24 hour period.

So if someone says 4 glasses a week is OK, they don't mean all in one sitting.

He also said that the advice is not to drink at all in the UK and the US because doctors don't trust patients to self-moderate. Which is pretty sad actually.

It is the current nhs advice. Was changed from 1 to 2 units no more than once or twice a week a few years ago. As someone else pointed out this was not on the basis of new evidence.

I mean small French glasses, not slamm.

I think that one of the reasons they went down to 0 alcohol was because of the tendency of some to "save up" their weekly "allowance" and have it all in one sitting, which is far more dangerous than having it every other day, say.

My alcohol of choice was always red wine as well, because I have a blood clotting issue, and red wine is one of the natural things that helps with anti-coagulation. Not enough to affect the anticoagulation from clexane in any way though (i.e. I wasn't at risk of bleeding more because of the red wine).

I was pg with DD 2 years ago, and in that pregnancy and this one I've only had the same advice which is 1-2 units once or twice a week. I can also only find advice on the nhs website saying the same thing. Are you sure it hasn't changed since this abstinence advice? Here are the links I've found...

www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/2270.aspx?categoryid=54&subcategoryid=130

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/alcohol-medicines-drugs-pregnant.aspx

www.nhs.uk/change4life/pages/pregnancy-and-alcohol.aspx

I tend not to trust the Daily Mail (!) but I do kind of trust the people at Harvard University....
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188846/Women-drink-pregnancy-affect-child-s-growth-years.html

I totally understand people who have one glass a week (rather than a day) but I just know that would frustrate me more than anything! I'm not out of sickness enough for it to be difficult yet but I'm sure it will be!

I've chosen not to drink at all during this pregnancy. With my first I had the occassional half pint of Guiness (for the B vitamins! )

I think the amount you're talking about - 1-2 glasses a night - is WAY too much. I don't know what the guidelines are, they seem to change ALL the time, but that amount just seems a lot. Even for a non-pregnant woman!

Tbh, and I really don't want to judge, but even a non-pregnant person who thinks they'd find it hard not to drink 1-2 glasses of wine a night, might want to look at their somewhat emotional dependency on alcohol.

Also want to point out: there is a difference between Foetal Alcohol SYNDROME (FAS), and Foetal Alcohol SPECTRUM DISORDER (FASD).

From what I understand, FAS is the more serious and carries physical as well as mental disabilities (including facial as well as brain malformation, and sometimes microcephaly). I work in a school with a child with FAS. It is caused by severe and heavy drinking of the kind associated with alcoholism.

The other: FASD, as the name suggests, encompasses a wide range of severity. FASD has been linked to mild and moderate, to severe and specific learning difficulties, emotional and social developmental problems and behaviour issues in children and adults.

As far as I'm aware, FASD is wildly under diagnosed. We simply do not know to what extent, children with the associated difficulties outlined above, have been damaged by moderate drinking during pregnancy.

There is also no way of telling who is more likely to be affected by certain amounts of alcohol and at what point during pregnancy.

Information on FAS and FASD can be found simply by Googling and clicking on the web pages for a number of different charities that work to raise awareness.

Interesting to note that the charities and organisations that work to promote understanding of both FAS and FASD, advise total abstinence.

I don't think anyone is suggesting it's ok to drink 1-2 glasses every day. most people who are drinking are suggesting having a drink once or twice a week, which is basically what the current UK guidelines are, which are currently 1-2 units at a time and up to twice a week is probably ok.

being aware of how many units in your glass is what's important. If I'm at home our glasses are small and I'll only half fill. If you're out though one if the large measures, ie 250ml is definitely too much in my mind.

As someone who likes my wine and drank a lot pre-pregnancy I've been surprised how easy it is to basically stop. I have enjoyed the odd glass though. I'm also personally finding the discipline of just having one small glass of wine at a time only once a week or fortnight a good habit.

My MW was pretty laid back on the alcohol advice. The purpose of the nhs guidelines though is not just about giving advice to individuals. They are a public health measure designed to influence behaviour over the population as a whole. The nhs goal is to minimise the occurrence of fsa in the UK. From that point of view it's probably been decided that telling women to drink nothing or very low amounts at most is the best way to achieve that goal, even if several studies have found that that higher levels of drinking are not a risk.