Drinking a small amount of alcohol in pregnancy?

[LH1987]

Hi all,

At the risk of starting a massive debate, I wondering what people’s opinion is on alcohol in pregnancy? I’m talking about around a small glass a week. Several of my friends are pregnant and all have different opinions, and there is a bunch of different information available online.

Just for clarity I haven’t drank any alcohol so far in my pregnancy!

Thanks

@littleduckeggblue, I wasn’t suggesting that I couldn’t go 9 months without alcohol, but thank you very much for your helpful and judgemental comment. I was questioning as it is something I enjoy and have read a lot of conflicting information on it.

I had maybe 3 glasses of wine total during my first pregnancy 11 years ago. IIRC recommendations were slightly different back then and most people had the odd drink, but not regularly and not large amounts.

I'm 18 weeks and yet to have a drop but going to treat myself to a little glass at Christmas.

It's absolutely fine to have a drink in very small doses. Being pregnant is a hard old slog, why shouldn't you get to treat yourself to a glass of vino?! It certainly doesn't make you an alcoholic 🙄

Definitely not something I would do, but each to their own. My personal opinion I couldn't cope with the guilt of something happened for the sake of a drink. Not worth it in my opinion.

I think the phrase 'there's no safe lower limit', is a tricksy bastard that plays like an ace card for the moralists. There's also no safe lower limit for air pollution but it's hard to weaponise that against women.

Read Expecting Better.

During my first pregnancy I had 1.5 glasses in total. One at a wedding and half a glass of mulled wine Christmas Day.
I’m very early in my second pregnancy and will probably have a mulled wine at Christmas.
Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable having a glass a week but equally I don’t think it’s excessive.
I don’t drink much anyway so I didn’t/don’t miss it.

One drink is NOT going to cause a problem so no need to worry about what ifs!

For those saying they’d never put their unborn at risk with s single drink; is the rest of your life risk free then? Do you put your child in a car? Do you let them on bouncy castles, eat chewy sweets they could choke on? Surely you want to remove ALL possible blame from your parenting should something go wrong???

Every week? I wouldn't, but I did have small amounts occasionally. I mean a couple of times during the entire pregnancy.

I had a few, and the odd sip of husbands cider on occasion. Probably about 10 drinks the whole pregnancy. I weighed up the available evidence and was happy with the 'risk'. DC is fine and dandy.

I agree

the NHS advise drinking no alcohol at all because:

1. there's no amount of alcohol that's been proven to be safe during pregnancy. This is not the same as "any amount is dangerous". It means that it would be unethical to carry out clinical trials where you make pregnant women drink different amounts of booze, and that studies based on people's self-reported alcohol consumption are unreliable because people lie & misremember. So you can't carry out a study to scientifically prove that (for example) 1-2 units per week is harmless to a foetus. You also can't prove that it does them any harm.

2. the people who set the NHS guidelines know that if they said "1-2 units a week is fine", there would be a bunch of idiots & people with drinking problems who would interpret that to mean "1-2 bottles a week is fine" or "the doctor said drinking is fine so I can have these 8 tequila shots". They're also presumably worried about people who have a low alcohol tolerance having 1 drink and then being more likely to decide to keep on drinking because they feel full of false confidence that it'll be fine. Saying "the official advice is no alcohol at all" is much clearer and reduces the risk of people turning round and sueing the NHS in 5 years time because they chose to binge drink and now their child has behavioural problems.

Personally I'm now 20 weeks pregnant, I've had about 5 or 6 small glasses of wine/prosecco (all on separate occasions!), and I don't feel worried or guilty about it. If I thought it was 100% necessary to stop drinking I would have done.

I had the odd glass, but certainly not every wk. If you have a glass at christmas or at a wedding thats not the same as having a glass every day. Also the problem is a glass in a pub is generally smaller then a glass at home.

Expecting Better isn't without its problems too.

www.nofas.org/emily_oster/
depts.washington.edu/fasdpn/pdfs/astley-oster2013.pdf

Just do your own research and work out what you're comfortable with. For me, it was abstaining, but I'm sure I did stuff when pregnant others might not have so it's all about your own risk levels and what you're happy with.

I didn't regularly with Ds1 because I went off everything until about 24 weeks. After that I enjoyed a bottle of beer every Friday evening.

DS2 I drank a couple glasses of wine a week pretty much right through after I stopped feeling like shit. DS2 is perfect in every way except for being a leftie and having a penchant for 5 year fart jokes...

It is personal choice and other people's personal choices shouldn't factor in your decision. You will find those that wouldn't touch a drop from a moral standpoint, those that didn't from a "went off booze" standpoint, and others who enjoyed a drink during their pregnancy with no adverse affects.

I knew in my core that my drinking a small amount of alcohol would not realistically harm my baby but that is an educated decision I made and I stand by it.

As long as you're comfortable with your decision and can shrug off any judgement then you'll be fine!

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/alcohol-medicines-drugs-pregnant/

No judging, but if you ask is good to know there is no proff of no risk of harming for any small amount. NHS clearly recommends to abstain from any amount while TTC or pregnancy.

This answers the question.

I personally am in my first pregnancy and am only 14 weeks , however, I have been aware of my pregnancy from only 4 weeks.

I wouldn't touch a drink whilst I was pregnant and haven't since I found out and I'm 18, trust me partying was my favourite past time before. However, I feel as if if anything was to, god forbid, go wrong I couldn't handle the thought that I may have played a part.

I think it is very much a personal decision and nobody should be judged for their opinion on the matter.

If you fancy a small one then have one. We worry far too much.

I had about 3 small glasses of wine in total during my last pregnancy, each at a special event. I didn’t feel bad about it.

But this is MN so expect the alcohol police to drag you for even asking the question.