Anyone else due in Sept? Anyone else been told ZERO alcohol?!

[surelyyoucantbeserious]

Just been to docs this morning and told that current recommendation is for ZERO units of alcohol per week!

Although the Doc did follow that up by saying 'our mum's weren't told not too drink...' in a suggestive manner...

Too right!

Personally I didn't drink through my pregnancy with DD1 as I couldn't even smell alchohol it made me feel sick.

This pregnancy is the same so far although I did force a glass of bubbly on Xmas day and New Years Eve - think it was defiance rather than enjoyment!!!

My MIL is a midwife and has been for 35 years she says that even a glass of wine a day is not going to cause a problem and that women have to drink an awful lot on a regular basis to cause a problem.

I know of a woman who drank a bottle of wine everyday through her pregnancy and her daughter seems fine apparently - she is not someone I see regularly though so I cannot comment with my own views but her daughter is now 4.5 years and apparently is just a normal little girl so who knows!

Not saying it's okay just interesting to hear of some alternative views...

I had a glass of bubby on christmas day and one glass on holiday recently but I can't say I really did enjoy it!

However, on new years, I had non alcoholic beer (becks) and it was fab!

I'lltry wine again, if and when I want to and I personally think if you are responsible and don't down gallons of the stuff you will be fine.

Spoke to one of the docs at work before I went on mat leave about this as there is so much conflicting advice at the moment.
One of the babies in the unit (born 6 weeks early) was subjected to heavy alcohol intake during pregnancy and when born showed no outward sign of foetal alcohol syndrome. Heavy = 1 bottle of wine per day and 1 bottle of vodka per week!!!! Would have been interesting to follow baby's development.
Think DOH have said zero alcohol as they treat all mums the same, as if we are a bit stupid and we don't know how to limit ourselves to one to two units per week.
Personally I chose to have 2 small glasses of wine per week once l was over 12 weeks as this amount of alcohol has never been found to have a detrimental effect on foetal development.
Have looked after babies whose mothers take much more harmful substances during pregnancy and I don't think it's fair that women who choose to be sensible should be made to feel guilty about having an occasional glass of wine.

Have a look at this. Someone actually did some research into this rather than just go for the kneejerk 'just in case, it's better not to' advice.

I am due in September (with my 2nd) and - despite the nickname - don't get tipsy nightly but I still enjoy wine and don't see any reason not to have a few glasses a week. There appears to be zero evidence that it is harmful - the fears relate to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which pretty much only kicks in when you have a bottle of vodka a day. I also drink coffee, eat chocolate and just about anything else I feel like - as in my first pregnancy. My son is big, bouncy, healthy and robust as an ox. Anyway, the advice is different depending on what country you live in so clearly nobody knows anything.

Good article.
The sickest baby I have seen born after their mother had drunk/eaten something, was after the mother ate homemade icecream and had gone on to develop Listeria food poisoning.
As I said in earlier post, alcohol isn't the worst.

What worried me about Zoe Williams article was that she had just taken one study and given it as gospel...other research studies agree with her to an extent, others don't...a lot of her evidence was also anecdotal...

The research carried out had also been done on pregnant rats and not humans...so many things are risky when you are pregnant due to the fact that testing is so rarely actually be done on pregnant women so is never actually definitive...

A Belfast study showed that a foetus literally jumps with shock after just one alcoholic drink - as if someone had gone up behind it and yelled "Boo!" in it's ear...

Of course we all have our own opinions...I just don't personally see the point of alcohol during pregnancy...whilst there is still some element of risk or distress to the foetus why bother? It's not something you "need" to function like water or oxygen...

The problem with alcohol is it is completely unethical to do a clinical trial into the effects it has on the foetus.
That is why the current recommendations state no alcohol during pregnancy.
The very fact that these change frequently show that nobody knows the answer.

In fact the Royal College of Obs and Gynae last year said that they did not agree with pregnant women being told to completely abstain from alcohol whilst pregnant.

Foetuses have been shown to react to many different stimuli inutero, not just alcohol.

Each to their own, if we are presented with all the facts, then we should be able to make a decision and not be made to feel guilty because of it.

With Dd the guidelines were 1-2 units a week but I mostly didn't bother at all. When the midwife said ZERO units a week when I was pregnant with DS I replied " what? Zero???" and she said, "why, is that a problem?" with a probing stare. Of course, it wasn't a problem and I had a couple of glasses of wine over the pregnancy.

Just use common sense, unlike a woman in our local paper who got into a fight and in court, in her defense, said she had had 13 vodkas because she was out celebrating her pregnancy. Complete nutter.

I agree with Cali - I worked in Great Ormond Street for years and there were a few cases of foetal alcohol syndrome I remember.(Not many, it is rare) When I was pregnant I talked to my boss who was consultant specialist in endocrine disorders (which covers foetal alcohol syndrome) about what is a safe limit to drink in pregnancy as I sure as hell don't want to risk that on my child but then it doesn't feel right either to abstain completely for the best part of a year - and he said all the cases at the hospital were from alcoholics living in poverty on terrible diets - often heavy smokers and drug users too. People who would not have given the child inside them a second thought. He confirmed there is no proven safe amount but there was a study that linked drinking more than 6 units a day throughout pregnancy can definitely increase your risk of fas.

For me personally I have found it really difficult to avoid alchohol this time round. It was xmas and new year, my dads 60th, new houses, new babies to celebrate. Things have calmed down now thankfully but I've had a few more glasses of wine than I did with DD. I kept to the 2 units twice a week rule over the holiday and now it's just occasionally - and a glass of red wine is such a comfort on days when you feel lousy! That's got to be good for baby too!