Glass of wine

[Caip]

When you start to have the odd drink once pregnant? I've only had the occasional sip of someone else's so far but am home alone tonight and there's a bottle if red staring at me! I'm 17 weeks

Chocolatemolehill yes, you sound both preachy and bore and quite, quite wrong. The available research suggests that a small amount of alcohol is harmless.

If we are in the business of absolute risk avoidance I suppose you have quit your job so you don't have to travel on the roads? You know you could get in an accident. And I'm sure you won't be walking around outside, you know, in case a plane lands on you.

So well done on trying to guilt a load of emotionally vulnerable women when it is completely unnecessary. Go on, have a .

LadyGoneGaga - I thought this is a place where people ask and answer questions and voice their opinions? It's just my opinion - take it or leave it.
And no, I still have a job, drive and fly, use make-up, eat scrambled eggs, haven't stopped washing and have nights out.
Some risks can and some can't be avoided. Some are tiny. And some ambiguous. Having worked in a medical context I've seen a lot (which I won't mention here so that I don't traumatise anybody) and made up my mind. Sorry for speaking about it - hadn't realised it would be offensive.

The evidence suggests it is harmless.
Do you have anything to prove otherwise molehill?

I don't think I've ever seen a thread on this subject on any forum anywhere in which it hasn't ended up in a heated disagreement.

I can see why some people choose to abstain. However those who do, when explaining why they have made that choice, tend to come across as sanctimonious and as if they are giving a lecture, even when they don't mean to.

Personally, like my last pregancy, I will have the odd glass of wine here and there (once I've stopped feeling like utter death and actually fancy one!).

Anecdotally, everyone I know who has had children has stuck to the 1/2 glasses a week and I have never come across a child with FAS.

I believe (from what i have read) that you have to drink quite heavily and very regularly to cause damage.

This is really interesting - I haven't looked at any research so didn't know so many women drank moderately during pregnancy. I honestly just thought it wasn't ok and am surprised to hear it is!

Personally I'm not drinking in my pregnancy even after discovering this now, because I think I'm actually quite sensitive and perhaps a bit allergic to alcohol anyway. I do normally drink but get drunk quicker than most and have worse hangovers than most too - so wouldn't wanna risk it now if my body is sensitive to it.

Also at 18weeks I'm still throwing up loads everyday, so don't fancy it anyway!

I'm with chocolatemolehill on this one.

Of course, everyone else can assess the risk themselves and do as they please. But, the number of people pressuring me to "just have one or two drinks" since I have been pregnant is insane. I leave them alone to drink, they should leave me alone not drinking. So I have started to lose my "everyone can do as they please within reason" attitude, since the privilege obviously doesn't extend to those who choose to avoid alcohol.

I think you need to listen to your body. The smell of wine in the first trimester was completely vile, so didn't have any then, but since then i've had a glass of wine most days - but I'm an enthusiastic wine drinker already and have had a textbook pregnancy, so you need to know how your own body responds and adjust accordingly. I think if there are any concerns it's best avoided otherwise you risk being full of 'what if' type questions.

A glass of wine (1.5-2 units) most days is going to push your weekly total pretty high Ruralninja.

A glass a day, even a small one is too much. Definitely.

The current guidelines say 1-2 small glasses a week after first trimester is fine.

But there's no evidence base is there? It's based on a conservative no-harm approach, not on a body of evidence. That's why it's so important to understand your own tolerance/relationship with alcohol. The guidelines are not based on evidence - that's the point.

lux people trying to persuade you to have one or two drinks? That's quite shocking. They should respect your choice not to have alcohol.

Have the wine & enjoy it if that's what you fancy.
I doubt most pregnant people want to get pissed.
Some people find the smell or taste of alcohol repels them in pregnancy but if it doesn't then in small amounts it can be very relaxing & feeling relaxed in pregnancy is good for you.

I'm with Ruralninja - if you already know your tolerance to alcohol and enjoy wine or beer then you make whatever decision you want.

A glass a day is too much for what Heidihole? I only say that as devils advocate. If I have a glass of wine a day which I manage to stretch out from 6pm when I get home until 9pm when I go to bed, drinking water, eating food and generally being sensible then how is it too much? And does it automatically mean that my baby will be affected to the negative? No, not really. Guidelines are just that. Guidelines. Just like women make whatever decision they want to about eating pate, cheese, ham, runny eggs and the like, they can make a decision about alcohol.

Those of us that do drink regularly during our pregnancies aren't telling others others to drink, just as my pregnant friends who don't drink during pregnancy don't tell others they shouldn't.

There are so many things that pit women against each other, during our pregnancies, once our babies are born and how we bring our children up and this is just another one of those things - I for one, don't think that Chocolatemolehill is being preachy or a bore and completely respect anyone's personal decision to do whatever they want with their bodies during pregnancy just as she has said that she's not judging anyone for wanting to drink.

I think, however, that the implication (not that the implication is here on this thread) that a woman who drinks during pregnancy must have an alcohol problem and is so totally selfish that she can't abstain for 9 months is one that gets bandied around whenever this discussion arises and this is the reason that it gets heated and why everyone's hackles are automatically raised.

We're all educated, smart women and we can all make a decision for ourselves based on our own risk assessment. Some may choose to drink alcohol, others may not. I have no time anyone who judges others on their personal decision.

Bravo stroke.

Agree completely.

Ruralninja - there is no evidence that low/moderate levels of alcohol consumption causes problems, for example this study www.bjog.org/details/news/2085661/Danish_studies_suggest_low_and_moderate_drinking_in_early_pregnancy_has_no_adver.html found no issues at 1-8 units a week and this one www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17233797 at up to 10 units. However, a 175ml of wine 5x a week is about 11 units, so you are pushing the definition of low/moderate there.

Obviously, it's up to you to judge the risks.

As I mentioned earlier, i'm normally rather a keen drinker (to say the least!) And can drink many men under the table. And I have not lost the desire to drink while pregnant. But how my body reacts to alcohol may be completely different to how my baby's body reacts. The cocentration of alcohol in baby's blodstreem 40 minutes after I drink is the same as in mine. But the baby's liver is not fully developed yet so it can't deal with the toxin (which is etanol) as well as mine (although I'm not that sure about my own liver after abusing it for many years :-)) I wouldn't give alcohol to a newborn (even thouth this is what people used to do as they sleep so much better then!) and wouldn't give it to an unborn baby.
But again, this is me. The research on how much is too much is very ambiguous and, as many people said here, we all need to make up our own minds. This is just my choice. And sorry if I sounded judgmental - I didn't mean to.

Concentration! I'm on my mobile...

My SIL is an obstetrician. She's delivered many, many babies. In all that time she's only seen one with FAS, and the mother was an alcoholic drinking a bottle of vodka a day. She told me to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine a week whilst pg.

For FAS you'd have to be downing a couple of bottles of wine every day and even then its unheard of in a first born and very rare in a second born.

They used to serve up guinness on maternity wards so a couple of glasses wine a couple of times a week is fine according to NHS guidelines.

A couple of glasses a week is absolutely fine. Babies only get FAS if the mother is an alcoholic or regularly binge drinking.

Do you have a reference for that Sim? I have never heard that birth order affects FAS.

AHardDaysWrite
you know that like all other conditions there is a spectrum
Only a small percentage of children have full blown FAS with facial characteristics
To get the facial characteristics the BM would have to drink during the (approx) 4 days when the facial features develop
There is FASD and FAE which in many cases would never be diagnosed
If you drink when an area of brain development is very active then that part of the brain will be affected by the alcohol, if brain development is at a dormant phase then you will get away with it

I would choose not to drink and give my child every chance

I only drank once in the first trimester (half a glass of champers at a work event where my excuse was driving but so were a lot of other people, and it was a 5 hour dinner, so a total refusal would have given the game away.)

After that, I had one, max, glass of wine a week until I developed pg complications and stopped altogether. If I hadn't I'd have been happy to carry on with the odd glass.

In terms of the evidence, yes it's difficult, not only because it's unethical to do RCTs, but also because most heavy drinkers under-report. As far as the RCOG are concerned, women who accurately report drinking 1 or 2 small alcoholic drinks a week have zero incidence of FAS.

As for the scaremongering crap that came out about soap and cleaning products (there is no actual evidence , but women might want to avoid them), I struggle to put my contempt into words.

Thanks for all the comments. Having started this off thought I'd add my thoughts. I didn't drink anything this weekend in the end - partly because once I'd sat on the settee I couldn't be arsed to move to open a bottle!
I don't plan to abstain completely during pregnancy I just haven't fancied anything enough yet to be bothered about not drinking if that makes any sense. I'm going to Germany in December and fully intend to enjoy a couple of glasses of Gluhwein and hope someone brings some port to ours at Christmas. I will also be having lashings of brandy butter on my Christmas pud (and on the small one we bought from a local brewery to try before Christmas!)
I am still enjoying the occasional strong black coffee, will be having parma ham later and am loving a bit of stilton.
I completely agree that everyone has to make up their own mind and not judge the decisions others make

Joy of joys, the NHS guidelines on Stilton have changed since my last pregnancy and it's now completely allowed!!!