Alcohol use during pregnancy

[ciara898]

Hi guys can anyone console me. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until 25weeks- pcos and overweight. I am worried sick as I’ve been drinking most weekends for the 25 weeks I didn’t know I was pregnant! At most a bottle of wine every Saturday night- never too drunk but definitely tipsy. I’m terrified my baby will have FAS. Has this happened to anyone else and have they had a healthy baby? I have had a scan and explained to my OB, all looks fine on my scan but he said we really won't know until baby is here

I'm not sure if we can offer any reassurance op, sorry. As your doctor said it's just a case of waiting. Hopefully all will be fine. Congratulations on your pregnancy.

There is no set level that is known to cause FAS however it is chronic exposure so daily amounts exceeding 3 units that is likely to lead to it.

Try and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy. You can’t change what’s already happened.

Agreed - you just have to wait and hope.

Not me but my mum had a really bad hangover and went to the hospital only to pop out my big brother hours later, she didn't know she was pregnant. Drank throughout her pregnancy because she didn't know and he turned out alright. Was a decent weight and wasn't affected by her drinking at all.

It's also my favourite thing to wind him up about now 😂

She had a hangover bad enough to need hospital treatment?!

I do know to have FAS you have to consume a lot of alcohol, hopefully u have found out early enough to avoid any real damage!

Congratulations

@StealthPolarBear it was the 80's 😂😂
But yes. She thought she had alcohol poisoning 😂

I'm afraid that isn't necessarily the case, the damage of fas is often in the early weeks. However, the majority of babies born to women who drink in pregnancy are not affected. Op, I assume you've seen a midwife now, your pregnancy sounds quite high risk, you will need to be carefully monitored. And if you're not already, FOLIC ACID :)

Stealth the OP is 25 weeks at least so what use would folic acid be now when it's only necessary up to 12 weeks?

Yes good point. I took it through pregnancy

But forget you don't need to, I mean

Have you spoken to your midwife? I'm sure the risk would be minimal, but MW support may help put things in perspective as they'll likely have had experience with FAS previously. Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Have you spoken to your midwife? I'm sure the risk would be minimal, but MW support may help put things in perspective as they'll likely have had experience with FAS previously. Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Just to give you some perspective /hope... My ex's sister had FAS. His mum was a raging alcoholic who ended up dying from liver failure when she was pretty young. She'd drink all day, every day. It took some alcohol to cause that! Also she seemed to have been that way for a v long time and it was only 1 out or 3 children that had FAS.

My best friend’s sister was gone when she found out she was pregnant at 19yo. Did a whole summer on the festival circuit, drinking, smoking, snorting coke....the works! Also vegan and almost anorexic. She had a very healthy 9lb4oz boy. He’s now in school and is turning out to be a virtual child prodigy.

I’m not an expert, but FAS is rare if the mother doesn’t have a physical addiction to alcohol. So I should think that your HCP was being conservative when suggesting that you’d have to wait to see what damage has been done.

Just stay healthy and dry now and try not to worry 😊

Op a huge amount of women drink in thr early stages of pregnancy and much more than you, for the simple reason they don't know they are pregnant. Please don't worry it's highly unlikely your baby will be impacted, just enjoy your pregnancy and congratulations!

Hi there. I'm in a very similar situation. I hope you and your baby are doing well. Did everything turn out okay?

@momma87 how is your baby now?