Found out I’m pregnant and drank A LOT over Christmas

[HBiz]

Hey all, looking for some advice really! My husband and I had just decided to start trying for children, had unprotected sex once on 22nd December and bang, we’re pregnant. I just found out on Sunday 7th Jan. We’re very shocked that it’s happened so quickly as we’ve been together for years without ever a pregnancy scare and assumed from talking with friends who have been trying for months/years that it would take at least a little while.

We are obviously super happy BUT now I’m thinking back to the festive period and realised I did everything you’re not supposed to - drank a lot between Christmas and New Year, ate pate, rare steak, cured meats, smoked salmon, all the cheeses. But this would have been consumed within 10 days of conceiving. Is this likely to have any impact on the foetus?

Luckily I had started dry January from the 1st and eating super healthily and obviously now I know I’m pregnant I’m avoiding everything I should be, but I’m feeling a bit guilty and worried about whether food/drink consumption over Christmas period will have caused any harm to baby :(

This is my first pregnancy if that wasn’t obvious!

Any advice or comments are welcome xx

There's lots of threads on this subject, and the consensus is always: you'll be fine, just don't drink from now on.

My story is that I went on holiday and drank many cocktails, went to a beer tasting, had several hot baths. Then I missed my period. Now I have a lovely 9 month old.

Congratulations on your pregnancy and please don't dwell any further. And DO NOT GOOGLE!

Until the embryo implants it won't be connected to your blood supply so you can eat or drink whatever you want and it won't do any harm. Implantation only takes place around 2 weeks later, approximately the time your period would have been due. So if you conceived around Christmas, then whatever you did the 2 weeks after that has zero effect.

Congrats and enjoy it!! :)

Congratulations! You’ll be fine. I found out I was pregnant with my son the night after my works Christmas do, where is had had much wine, shots and smoked a few cigarettes (despite not being a smoker!?). It's very common for women to have drunk and smoked before finding out!

So many of us have been in the same
boat. Think about all the unplanned pregnancies etc etc. All will be well. However, get on the antinatal vitamins now, especially folic acid.

congratulations and enjoy your pregnancy!

This was me a year ago OP- found out I was 6 weeks pregnant at the end of December and I'd been travelling loads for work all Dec and drinking every other night with colleagues. DD is nearly 5 months old now and absolutely fine. Looking at the dates you've found out earlier than I did as well so you and baby should not have been affected by anything. All the best to you!

I did a bit, same as my GP she told me she said we all do it seems

I stopped immediately when I knew

Firstly - congratulations!!!!!!

Don’t worry at all - I found out I was pregnant at 5 weeks with my first and I had drunk an awful lot to that point - pretty much every night, heavy, definite party girl back then 🙄

Told the midwife - and it’s not unusual. In fact despite being told ‘do not drink’ during pregnancy you can still have the very occasional glass of wine now and again (I had like 2 glasses of Prosecco during my entire remainder of my pregnancy) it’s heavy/regular drinking throughout pregnancy that they are watchful of.

I went on a hen do, then suspected a week later I might be but test said no off I went for a works do a x then a wedding so plenty of heavy drinking and then got a positive. Everything was fine though

You and baby wouldn’t have even had shared a blood supply then so it’s fine

also to stop the misinformation about meats and cheese- the only reason you can’t eat them is because of the increased risk of food poisoning which isn’t good for pregnant women.

if you haven’t had food poisoning, you haven’t harmed your baby by eating rare steak and cheeses. And even if you did get food poisoning, you are probably ok anyway unless it was very severe

there is nothing specially in cured meats or rare steak or smelly cheese that is heading towards your womb to hurt your baby

I got pregnant with my husband during a raucous 10 day holiday in vegas which you can imagine involved copious amounts of alcohol and unhealthy food and we now have a very healthy and intelligent almost 5 year old!

Im sure everything will be fine- congratulations! Xxx

You won't have done any harm at all. My friend was told she had miscarried after a huge bleed at about 9 weeks, she spent a few weeks on a big bender drinking and smoking heavily. Turns out it wasn't a miscarriage at all, her son is now 17 and a perfectly healthy strapping lad never had any issues.

My sister in law was told many years ago to drink Guiness throughout her pregnancy to increase her iron intake! She took their advise and her son was absolutely fine, when born and is now 45 years old!

Congratulations on your pregnancy

The first 12 days the cells haven't differentiated yet, resulting in some protection from alcohol. In short don't worry.

The only thing to look out for will be a blighted ovum but once you see a heartbeat (around 7 weeks) it's all fine. x

I had 2 weekends of hard partying and found out I was pregnant at the end of the second one. Oops! DD is 6 now and absolutely fine

@GavinHendersonsChipPan

I agree she'll be fine, but the embryo is connected to the mothers blood supply from around 6 or 7 days after conception. Once implanted the little capillaries spread out and connect to the mothers supply.

The yolk sac receives nutrition this way

With my first I got so drunk at a night out I fell on my massive heels- found out a week later.
With my second and third I had nights out and got drunk before I found out as well although not quite to the same extent!
I was always told the first couple of weeks the baby isn't taking much from you anyway.

Absolutely fine, don’t feel guilty. For the first couple of weeks the baby (just a few cells at this stage) doesn’t share your blood supply. I didn’t find out until I was 7 weeks pregnant as I have irregular periods. We’d been on an all inclusive holiday where was drinking 2-6 drinks a day for a fortnight! Much more than I normally would outside of a holiday. Was so worried. The midwife laughed at my worry and said it was absolutely common and nothing to worry about in those first few weeks. Had a very normal pregnancy and have a very healthy 8 year old now. Congratulations on your pregnancy x

It's a bit old now, but there's a book by Emily Oster called Expecting Better that goes through the evidence behind pregancy advice.

You get given these rules without it being explained what the rationale or consequence is, it makes it sound like if you eat a bit of unpasteurised cheese an anvil will fall on your head immediately. It's all about risk. Eg that cheese has higher risk of catching listeria, which messes up baby - risk is still tiny but severe if it happens.

You can't ethically carry out studies on pregnant women to see whose babies experience negative effects from particular substances, and even if you could it would be hard to separate that substance from others that might impact the outcomes. So they err on the side of banning things to be on the safe side. Some of the rules have little evidence behind them. Eg lots of medicines say not safe in pregnancy or ask your doctor - it's because they can't be proven to be safe, not necessarily because they're dangerous (I'm not saying you should take any old thing though!)

As pp said, alcohol won't have passed to baby as it takes time for umbilical cord to establish. Food risks are usually about food poisoning, you'd know if you had that.

I didn't have a clue I was pregnant until the Monday

I gave birth on the Saturday

In that time,I drank,smoked,ate all the 'forbidden' foods,went on at least 3 roller-coasters and lots of other fast rides

He's now 23 and about to make me a first time granny

You'll be fine

I had exactly the same experience 17 years ago - several weeks of Christmas parties, a holiday, and drinking almost every day, and then discovered that I was pregnant. My baby is now a healthy 16-year-old, studying for her A-levels.

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

Thank you! This is super reassuring :)

Wow that’s incredible! Must have been a shock!

Can you imagine how many women get pregnant after drinking!! Bloody loads!!
Don't worry, ask the midwife and enjoy your pregnancy.

You'll be fine

I ate cured meats and smoked salmon in pregnancy

also got pregnant unexpectedly, was so spectacularly gone after a night out a couple of weeks after conception that I thought that DS was a really, really, really bad hangover. Mother of the Year!

I panicked, wept at the doctors, hadn’t been taking folic acid either. Midwife laughed out loud and said well, many babies are conceived when their mothers are having a wild one (honeymoon babies etc) so don’t worry, they don’t get FAS from that. DS is an intelligent strapping six footer (it is Mumsnet after all) and doesn’t appear to be any the worse for my pishedness. Never touched apple Sourz since though 🤣