About to pop. Panicking about alcohol consumption.

[russellgrantschin]

I just read an article about what midwives see/smell/hear during birth and thought it would be lighthearted and informative. It was - until it got to the end where they have a whole sub heading about alcohol consumption where the midwife says that the effects are often visible when the baby comes out if the mother has drunk a lot during her pregnancy.

I have not stopped drinking during preg, but I've certainly stopped at one glass of wine per "session." Maybe once or twice I have had two (that is in 9 months.)

Am I in trouble? Or are they talking BIG amounts.

I think by 'drinking a lot' they must mean high volume on a consistent basis, week in week out;bt then again I'm not an expert, and I've always gone tee total when pregnant so I don't know. How often is a session?

Could you link to the article please?

You'll be fine. A glass of wine every few days isn't going to harm your baby.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs when a woman drinks heavily and consistently throughout pregnancy. How often do you have a session? I'm sure a glass of wine once or twice a week is not going to harm your baby.

Am sure you're fine, but would also really like to see this article

I'm the same as you, I'm due any day now and I haven't stopped drinking completely. Have been averaging one glass of wine or g&t a week, very occasionally two. I'm not too worried, it takes a lot more to do any damage.

I have a glass of wine once every couple of weeks and sometimes a very low alcohol lager shandy. I think this is well within what's safe, although when I mentioned this to someone the other day I got a comment about feeling guilty... Not me!
I am sure they are talking about heavy drinkers...that said, the night before my elcs for dd (breech)I went out and shared a bottle of red and the largest, rarest steak I could find, I don't think anyone noticed, her agpar scores were the highest you can have!

The NHS says that one or two small glasses of wine a week is ok. They think we're all stupid & this is too much of nuanced message to give out, hence the 'don't drink at all' message.
Fetal alcohol syndrome occurs if you regularly, as in week in, week out, drink a fair bit and get drunk.

A lot of studies on alcohol consumption are done on people who are necking back enough booze to get drunk each day, so it's very difficult to get an accurate idea of how much is ok.

The thing I've read that put my mind at ease is that the baby is only really affected by what your liver can't metabolise in one go (so, for instance, if you have one glass of wine, your liver will process it and you'll be ok. If you get drunk, it's too much to deal with all at once, so some of that can pass to baby).

A baby with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can have what I would describe as a pixie like face and a piercing scream. They can be born addicted to alcohol. These aren't babies whose mum has had a drink or two but those who have a drink problem and have been binge drinking regularly.

Advice about alcohol consumption when I was pregnant with DS1 18 years ago was very relaxed. My DS wasn't born with fas. Please don't worry.

www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/FetalAlcoholSyndrome.html
Here's an interesting article linking lots of studies - moderate amounts of alcohol (even 1 drink a day) have not been shown to cause any cases of FAS.

Interesting that that link points to some research which suggests children of light drinkers during pregnancy might actually be better off in some ways! I am 30 weeks pg and have a drink occasionally, I did in my first pregnancy too. I do notice that it 'relaxes' the (generally very frenetic) baby, but I assume that's just because it relaxes me, which is probably a good thing. I have v. complicated pregnancies though with a lot of medication, and it's hard to worry too much about coffee/the odd glass of wine if you are on serious drugs the whole way through . . .

Hello,

Here is a patient information leaflet that summarises all of the available sceintific information about drinking alcohol in pregnancy.

The research that has shown that children of light drinkers do better is thought to be 'confounded'- the effect is probably not caused by the alcohol itself, but by the fact that light drinkers are more likely to be from a specific socioeconimic group that is linked to better outcomes for children.

www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/Alcohol/