whats the current advice on drinking in pregnancy??

[SparklyGothKat]

not for me!! for misdee

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Ooh good luck! I'm due 9th July - my 40th's on the 21st
Lots of curries, sex, clary sage baths and raspberry leaf tea is the general consensus I think ...having said that they come when they're ready

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Well I think the current advice is zero but when I had my ds 2 yrs ago it was 1-2 units once or twice a week which is what I stuck to and he was born absolutely fine and is really clever for his age. My mw told me they 'say' zero now as they don't really know but I didn't get a telling off about continuing to drink 2 units a week, in actual fact she just said it was good that I had cut right down!

"It seems the majority of advice is not to drink any alcohol during pregnancy. I guess the majority don't want to take the risk, no matter how small, just in case. "

That isn't the majority of advice, that is the DoH advice, NICE guidelines still state that 1-2 units once or twice a week is fine, most doctors/mws when pressed will tell you stay off the booze for the first 3 months and then follow NICE guidelines. The simple truth is they know alcohol abuse can cause FAS but apart from that they have no idea what alcohol consumption could cause.

Just found this from NICE, trying to find a link to the guidance.

Chequers I am pretty sure that even more than one glass won't harn your baby by that stage!!!

A spokeswoman from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said: "The experts have concluded that there is no consistent evidence of adverse effects from low-to-moderate alcohol during pregnancy (less than one drink or 1.5 units per day) but the evidence is probably not strong enough to rule out any risk.

"The recommendations are subject to consultation and final guidance is due to be published in March 2008."

I didnt drink at all the first 3 months and then have had 2 units twice a week for the last 4 months (i.e. 175ml glass of white wine twice a week - bliss). However I have just found out that apparently you shouldn't be eating goats cheese and I've merrily been consuming that for the last 7 months, my poor baby it's going to come out with 2 heads.

To be fair the risks of soft cheese,pate, raw fish, shellfish etc are different from alcohol as these food stuffs might contain a bacteria such as listeria that can actually harm the baby. HOWEVER the risk of this food stuffs containing this bacteria is very very low (even lower if they are pasteriszed and none at all if they are cooked)

Libra ..interesting that NICE mention 1.5 units a day ...that makes more sense to me than the once or twice a week thing. (see my earlier Q about alcohol not accumulating) Do they have any links to the actual research?

when i was pregs with my DT's they put me on iron tablets which bunged me up somewhat! So I stopped taking them and would have half a pint of guinness instead every other day! I continued to do that when they were born early and I had to express. They were on iron suppliments so the extra in my breast milk helped

thats my excuse and i'm sticking to it

StarlightMcKenzie, with you drinking alcohol during pregnancy, i just thought maybe you did it because you genuinly think it's not harmful. Fair enough.

However, after reading your last post, it seems you egnore all advice in what to avoid during pregnancy because you seem to know best. Not eating Pate, soft cheese, raw fish etc during pregnancy is a perfectly reasonable request to ensure the health of your unborn child. But you know best of coarse.

I think i will be leaving this thread now...

Aggie I have been searching, that quote was from last October, I have found some new guidelines released in March, the document can be found here:
www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG062QuickRefGuide.pdf

Pg 24 says:
Alcohol Advise women planning a pregnancy to avoid alcohol in the first 3 months if possible.
If women choose to drink alcohol, advise them to drink no more than 1 to 2 UK units once or twice a week (1 unit equals half a pint of ordinary strength lager or beer, or one shot [25 ml] of spirits. One small [125 ml] glass of wine is equal to 1.5 UK units). At this low level there is no evidence of harm. Advise women to avoid getting drunk and to avoid binge drinking.

However it does not contain links to actual research. I feel the same way as you tho, how come it's ok twice a week but not everyday as surely the body has metabolised the alcohol by then. I think the answer will probably be that a lot of women aren't aware how much 2 units is and therefore if their large glass of wine measures 3 units then that would not be ok everyday but would be tolerated twice a week - if you see what I mean?

Actually raw fish is fine as long as it's been frozen, apparently that kills the nasties.

While TTCing I spent ages researching this and concluded that there was no evidence that moderate drinking was bad while pregnant. I resolved that I would drink while pregnant but when I've tried to put it into practice found I've lost the taste for it. Assuming that once my morning sickness is gone I enjoy it again, I will be having a small glass of wine as and when I feel like it.

The evidence shows that a large amount of alcohol is bad for the unborn child - the children of alcoholic mothers often have problems. But extrapolating from this to the notion that if a large amount of alcohol causes damage, a small amount will cause problems to a lesser extent is nonsense. There are few linear functional relationships in biology. If For instance, if I take a large amount of paracetamol it will kill me. If I take a small amount it shouldn't do any permanant damage.

SMcK - I am not much of a drinker either and I resent this advice. If I had difficulty stopping at 1-2 units I like to think I would abstain, even if I wasn't pregnant!

I find the new advice easier, as I don't have to think whether I'm having my one unit a week or whatever. I did have the odd drink towards the end of my last pg, and may well do again, as the big risk is in the first three months.

ON a similar subject, what about peanuts? Have been happily eating them thanks to reading something about no need to avoid unless food allergies in family, only to find that the DOH guidance hasn't changed

Thanks for the link Libra. I think I'll keep hunting and try to find an answer to the twice-a-week- rather-than-everyday question. Bet there isn't a good reason

I think there was recent research to show avoiding peanuts could increase the chance of developing allergies

no I didn;t mean I HAD to drink one unit a week, just easier to abstain altogether than to worry if I were within government guideline

"The thing is, - red meat, broccoli, prawns etc. etc. are known to be toxic, but there has been hardly any research on the effects on the unborn child."

SMcK, are they really? I have been enjoying all those things.