Heavy drinking before finding out I was pregnant - help!

[Ma2]

I found out I was pregnant at 4.5 weeks, and after at least 2 nights of binge drinking in the previous few days. Of course I did not suspect that I could be pregnant. Now everyone tells me I have nothing to worry about and the baby will be fine, but I'm looking to understand 'why' (biologically) it will be fine? How could this not have affected my baby? Do I really have nothing to worry about? If anyone has had this discussion with their obstetrician, please do share. Thank you!

I drank two bottles of wine the night before I found out I was pregnant. Seriously it’ll be fine.

Hi, with 2 of mine id had some heavy nights before finding out I was pregnant, my eldest I found out at new year and id drank a lot over Christmas and my youngest I found out a week after my birthday where id gotten so drunk I couldn't walk 🙈 they were both fine a healthy 18 year old boy and a stroppy but healthy 14 year old girl. Don't worry x

I fell pregnant at 18 and didn’t find out until I was 24 weeks.. there was A LOT more than just one or two big nights in that time. Absolutely not ideal but luckily my son is totally fine.

At 4.5 weeks your baby is a blob of cells. It's highly unlikely your binge drinking affected anything. Before anyone knew any better, women engaged in all sorts of behavior that could negatively affect babies - smoking, drinking, drinking caffeine, etc etc. The world would be a very different place if every little action affected babies so negatively. Women's bodies are amazing and biologically designed to actually protect babies as much as possible. I wouldn't worry about it.

from what I can gather it’s got a lot to do with the baby not using the placenta for nutrients yet. Ultimately you can’t do anything about it now and a LOT of women have binge drank before finding out, myself included.

Before about 5-6 weeks any cell can be replaced and regenerated. If the cells are damaged too much the baby will abort. So baby will be fine!

Placenta doesn't take over until 10-12 weeks. At 4-5 weeks it isn't even visible on an ultrasound, and the very earliest cardiac activity has been identified has been 5-6 weeks. At that stage there isn't really a mechanism by which that much alcohol would be able go get into the embryo, much less travel around it.

Your baba will be fine

It’s ok, baby is still getting nutrients from the yolk sac at that stage so whilst not ideal it shouldn’t have harmed baby. It’s more important from week 6 when the neural tubes are developing, and then the placenta starts to take over a few weeks after.

Thanks so much everyone - I feel much better about it - thanks for taking the time to respond xxx

My friend found out she was pregnant at 12 weeks and was heavily drinking most weekends and even odd bottle of wine through week. Her baby fine, she just stopped drinking straight away

Thank you!