What are you all doing about drinking? (alcohol)

[wheresmespecs]

And what's your reasoning? This is just curiosity really.

I didn't drink at all during the first 3 months and thereafter limited myself to 2 units a week. This was because that seemed to be inside the (confusing and ridiculously 'open to interpretation to mean whatever you want') NHS guidelines, and because it was what a close friend had done during her recent pregnancy. Which isn't exactly scientific, obvs.

I am pregnant again, it's v early days (still in 1st trimester) and wondering if I will do any differently this time round. And if I did, what I would be basing my decisions on.

So what is everyone else doing and why? TIA.

No I'm not saying you can only consume items with proven benefits in pregnancy

I am stating that I don't understand how you can choose to do one but stick your nose in the air to the other.

Both have risks, although if you are heavily addicted to either you are asked to cut down not stop.

You can get iron from many sources other than red wine btw so that doesn't make any sense what so ever to me.

I gave up smoking when I found out I was pregnant with DC1 and despite being a classic binge drinker I won't touch a drop of alcohol in pregnancy because I have worked with the people left to deal with the effects, the child, and its not something I would risk for a few halves.

But that is my personal choice and opinion which is based on emotion and experience

I very rarely drank alcohol before getting pregnant so it's been quite easy for me. I'm now 30 weeks and haven't touched any alcohol at all. Like someone else said the guilt of having a drink would outweigh any pleasure I get from it so there's no point. I'm looking forward to having a few at Christmas though (won't be breastfeeding)

Let me clarify, the glass proably large, but it was for the whole 9 months, not just before they knew.

don't want to scare people, so sorry if that is the case.

If somthing is a risk with no benefits why would you risk it?
FAS does not happen to everyone who's mother drank during pregnancy. it is just an unlucky few. but why not minimise the risks?

Totally agree with Sam.

Call me old fashioned (although I shall bee thoroughly ashamed if you do given that I an only 25 :o) but I fine it odd that I am having to explain myself for NOT drinking in pregnancy

No, you explained why you don't drink in pregnancy - others on this thread have explained why they do. It's a personal choice, no one is judging

If I was going to be on my knees with guilt after one drink then I wouldn't do it either. However, I am perfectly comfortable with drinking a glass of wine when I fancy it so I shall continue to do so. Each to their own I say

I agree each to their own but there have been a few posts that seemed condescending to those who dont drink.

Perhaps I'm just reading into it wrongly.

Fwiw I wouldn't be on my knees with guilt either but if there were any issues at all with my baby them I know I would automatically attribute it to the one drink I had when I was x Weeks pregnant and to me it just isn't worth it.

i think for as long as there is no 100% proof that it's safe to drink and EXACTLY how much the safe amount is there will always be two camps

the ones that drink and think those that don't are completely paranoid not to

the ones that don't drink and think those that do are taking risks

neither camp is of course right until we know and how others handle their pregnancy has no bearing on our own.

peanut, no one has asked you to explain yourself for not drinking in pregnancy.

My apologies, but I did start the thread asking people what they were drinking and what their reasoning was. This was because I was curious, as I said - nothing more. I for one have been quite clear that I don't think my OWN logic behind it is actually very logical. IYSWIM.

FWIW, given that you have said you would have trouble stopping at one drink, and were a classic binge drinker pre-pregnancy, I think it is very sensible that you have decided to abstain completely.

ladymia - it's interesting that you say 'how others handle their pregnancy has no bearing on their own.'

Quite a few commenters on this thread have cited friends' and relations' behaviour as something which has informed their own. In fact, I did, in my opening post (my friend who decided to drink 2 units a week, which I copied as a guide). I would say we are very influenced in a lot of behaviour by what we perceive as 'the norm', sometimes over and above advice guidelines.

If this thread opened up to include the differences in drinking behaviour between the UK and other countries (beyond the US), I'd be really interested to see if there were cultural differences.

I've agree if I thought I'd struggle just having one I also would have completely abstained.

ah no i just meant i do not know why people get upset how others handle these things during pregnancy not that you should not draw from others and i do think it's important to find out how others are handling it or have handled it in the past. if that makes sense!

by the way i was not born and raised in the UK and i suppose you are right, it's really not something someone would do where i am from ... not a glass not even a drop so that probably did influence my decision too.

I love having a drink or two or three..........but I'm 23 weeks pregnant and I've not touched a drop and I won't until he/she is here! In my opinion it's just not worth the risk, nothing is more important than my baby (& my other three children) so I've given up everything that's not good so then I know I did everything i possibly could to give it the best start in life and if that means giving up alcohol, caffeine etc then so be it! I'd never forgive myself if something bad happened or if the baby arrived and there was something wrong but at least this way if something does happen I know it wouldn't have been anything I did :-)
Follow your heart and do what suits you best, I don't frown upon anyone who does choose to drink as its non of my business so make sure whatever you decide to do.......you are happy with it and hold ur head high :-)
Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and ur bundle of joy when it arrives x

I'm sorry, I can't believe toffee's story there. I have read stuff that some women say they only had a few glasses a week through the guilt of having caused FAS in their child. Whereas the reality was they were alcoholics in fact.

I can't believe a few glasses a week would even be very easily detected in the fetus if we could do those sorts of studies. Most people eat with the drink too and often over a period, not all at once.

If you don't drink alcohol or very little it's very easy to preach complete abstinence through pregnancy. It's easy to forget that women who drink largely do so because the enjoy it. I have a friend who had to have a bottle of bear every other weekend - she had a craving for it. Though non-pg she really drinks very little.

To answer the OP, I would normally drink every evening and now not drinking at all. I may change my mind later in the third trimester perhaps. I have little desire to drink basically and can't drink enough water to keep properly hydrated, so dinking alcohol wouldn't help in any case.

I thought a poster early on touched on something interesting. Peer pressure to drink a little in pg. I feel this at times too, especially when we're drinking champagne (like it's somehow got no alcohol in it). I wonder how many other people get this sort of pressure?

I'm pretty skeptical about anecdotal evidence of people having children with FAS who only drank low levels during pregnancy. One of the issues with trying to figure out what is safe is that it requires on women self reporting what they drank which is unreliable and people often under report.

I've been having a small glass of wine from time to time, on average probably one a week but some weeks none and others I'll have a glass a couple of nights. While I was on holiday a bit more - when bizarrely I had the most peer pressure to drink from one of our group who is a doctor and kept telling me I could be drinking more than I was.

I stayed within the NHS guidelines, and drank about 1 or 2 glasses of wine a month. Pre-pregnancy I drank about 7 glasses a week.

My reasoning was that I didn't want to hurt the baby by drinking too much, so I cut down considerably, but I did feel I was allowed to spoil myself a little within the guidelines, so I had one during a dinner out, Christmas, New Year - special occasions.

It's strange - although I was a big drinker before becoming pregnant (by that, I mean I enjoy alcohol, and would relax with wine at the end of the day) I haven't wanted to touch a drop since I had a positive test. I'm only 5+3 so it's early days. But the desire has left me! Sniffed DH's beer on Saturday night and it left me nonplussed.

I think I'll definitely have some good red wine later on as a treat, once I'm 12 weeks. And I'm no slave to the guidelines, but a little of what you fancy does you good. It's so personal, isn't it?

I agree with those who say they've felt pressure to drink. I've hardly told anyone except my family and best friend, and they've all said, 'Go on, a little glass of wine won't hurt'. They're Scottish, so perhaps it's that!

If you mean me, LeBFG, the pressure was coming from someone who is always drunk - not that I knew that at the time, but he's a serious alcoholic as far as I can make out, so it wasn't so much peer pressure as just someone who could not understand why I was happy to function without getting pissed on a rare night out.

I'm not sure how often other people get pressured to drink when they are, or might be pregnant.

I've just looked, I was referring to wheresmespecs - she said about the pressure being about 'anti-authoritarian'. I get this a bit from my DH actually of all people. Not 'get pissed pressure' but 'go on, enjoy a glass of wine' sort of thing. And not real going on and on...just people saying 'why not?' or 'oh I drank a few times a week' sort of thing. Just comments like that.

beaver I'm virtually at the exact same stage and the thought of alcohol actually turns my stomach!!

As I mentioned before I won't be drinking at all. But I suspect my cousin who's also pregnant will probably partake and frankly it's her choice. I don't plan on guilting her about it or making her feel bad. It's her choice. :)

I've certainly had more peer pressure not to drink, mainly from male friends who aren't fathers and who are if I even have had one splash of wine (literally two mouthfuls!) in a glass, on social occasions like a dinner party. It's sweet if a little annoying and like having the pregnancy police around!!

Their other halves & most other female friends are much more likely to think a little bit every now & again is what they do / would do. I don't know a woman who has been totally teetotal and every single one has had a bouncing baby!

Incidentally, male friends whose wives have been pregnant are much more sanguine about the occasional small drink.

Incidentally, to me two full glasses of wine per week for an entire pregnancy is not an insignificant amount. Maybe I'm cautious but think noone on here has said that's what they have do / are doing. So not sure about toffee's point that that is the bottom end of the scale.

lots of 'incidentally's'
Ha ha!

Argh - all this talk of caffeine being more dangerous is worrying, in my first pregnancy I rigidly stuck to no more than 2 cups of tea a day no matter what. But this time I've been drinking coffee and tea all day!!!

Sounds like I better cut down soon.

With alcohol, I was cutting out completely until I said I felt like a big drink to my midwife, and she said I should have it (as I'd been through a total horrific botched op that day, plus it was my birthday) Since then I've had a sip when I've fancied it, but usually after 1 or 2 sips my body has had enough so I just leave the rest.

As far as I can find out caffeine is not more dangerous and there isn't any conclusive evidence that it is a risk at all.

Queenofsiburbia, do you mean the large pub measures of 250ml by "full glasses of wine"? They have at least 3 units in so would probably be too much at one time.

i actually think toffeesam's post there is quite misleading - it's not really fair to scare people like that with unsubstantiated claims.

FAS is associated with heavy drinking - most commonly, alcoholics. There are problems with getting a diagnosis because mothers who give birth to such children tend to deny they were ever drinking in the first place due to the guilt.