Excessive Alcohol use then found out I was pregnant :((

[Pudding444]

The day I missed my period I went all out on a mad drunken booze up. I spent the night in with DH and must have had at least half a litre of vodka and other spirits with coke to myself. The week after I got a BFP! At the time of drinking I would have been just over 4 weeks. I am devastated that I have done potential damage to my unborn baby. Can anyone reassure me that all will be OK? Or have I ruined it all already

Hi OP,

I'm a doctor. While nobody can guarantee you that it will have no effect and that everything will be fine, you'd be unlucky to have done any significant harm from a single episode of drinking. Issues like foetal alcohol syndrome usually occur in babies repeatedly exposed to alcohol during the first trimester but it is not impossible that a single episode of heavy drinking could have had an effect.
It's not your fault, you didn't know you were pregnant, so try not to beat yourself up about it. Just make sure your midwife knows what happened, so that she can support you as much as anything as this is obviously stressful for you.
You can't undo it, and the probability is that it will be fine. Just avoid alcohol from now on (I am sure you would anyway).
Congratulations on your pregnancy :)

Please don't worry, I did this unknowingly too, I promise he is absolutely fine, very bright etc don't worry this happens to many people

Thank you both for the responses. I can't help but worry. I feel so guilty that I am struggling with the stress. I will talk to midwife when I get a chance.

I looked at the stats for this. The percentage of women who are alcoholic is higher than the percentage who have children with FAS. Also remember 1/3 of pregnancies are unplanned and those women are likely to be drinking in early pregnancy. The numbers don't really stack up that a single drunken episode will cause issues. You'd have to be very drunk for a large part of your pregnancy for it to be an real concern.

yeah I've researched very deeply into it myself, it's just the amount of vodka that was consumed that worries me.

I did this at new year got shit faced and I was about 4 weeks gone. Spoke to every doc I seen and health visitor and it was fine because the placenta isn't attached at that stage.

Did the same with my first and told my, rather older, GP as was devastated. He was lovely and told me ‘if I had a £1 coin for every time someone mentioned this I’d be rich’! I was trying to conceive but it took longer than we thought so I’d just got on with life and had had a rather long lunch. She’s 18 now and at home on a work placement for uni!!

I did exactly the same. At 4 weeks unless you are conducting early pregnancy tests you will not know. As NotSo says, and I believe it to be true because I researched it 10 years ago when I did the same, the placenta hasn’t attached at this point so the baby is not getting nutrients-alcohol- from you. My 10 year old is fine and bouncing about noisily upstairs.

I was beside myself with stress when I found out I was expecting my dd as I’d been on lots of very boozy nights out and a very unsympathetic gp didn’t reassure me much.
Anyway dd is now too set for everything so it didn’t harm her. Also know 2 of friends one found out after a hen do in magaluf and another after a wine tour weekend.
You’ll be fine op

Top sets

Similar happened to me with my first (unplanned) pregnancy. DC is now 30 and completely healthy, try not to worry

Really try not to worry. I also went on a massive bender early on in pregnancy when I didn't know. Took cocaine too.
Stopped everything the moment I found out. DD is now in 19 and at uni - and perfect in every way. Well almost

I hope so. Thanks all for replies, just trying to forget about it now but it's just so difficult.