(by the way i'm not religious, i'm a rationalist) Binge drank in early pregnancy - i think i should have a termination?
Panic. I binge drank when i didn't know i was 26 days pregant, i should have guessed as i kept having funny dreams about being pregnant... i was about 4 and a half weeks i guess, the most vital stage for brain and facial feature development. i maybe had 4 shots of bacardi (it could have been 5 as i don't know how big the measure my boyfriend poured me was) in about an hour! On a full stomach but i felt quite eurphoric and definitly intoxicated and detached for quite a few hours. I got a hang over and felt nauseous and dizzy well into the early hours. I'm so awfully sorry that this has happened. My boyfriend wants me to have a termination and i think i have to agree, we are both phd students and i'm afraid i couldn't bare to have a retarded child - he has no alcohol tolerance although i can drink like a fish so it is genetically possibly vulnerable. (it was unplanned by the way) after we read this:
"If a woman binge drinks during such a critical stage, significant harm may be inflicted on the developing fetal brain. The resulting deficits can range from gross structural abnormalities, such as small brain size and significantly altered brain circuitry. Children exposed to even a single binge drinking episode (blood alcohol levels over 0.07 or 80mg) show behavioural difficulties such as in adhd (poor attention and impulse control), have on average 7 points lower iq than controls (sometimes up to 24 points) and perform far less well on verbal and numeric reasoning tests at age 7 and 14. Before age of 7 and 14 their learning disabilites are not evident, but their peers soon surpass them.
I guess i just want to know i'm doing the right thing in having a termination, i want to know peoples stories.
I felt pretty drunk, and i felt nausea afterward (my symptoms lasted from 8.30 until 2.30 in the morning), my blood alcohol level must have been at least 0.09, enough to cause the death of a third of the fetal brain cells - which cannot regenerate. Thus i do think i'm fairly screwed. My mother drank like a fish with me but a single binge episode is universally believed to MUCH more harmful than moderate or light drinking (2 a day) over a few hours, or over a week. 4/5 drinks in an hour? That's got to be majorly damaging. My timing was just, awful. And the worst thing is, i never drink usually.
There is an oxford study that says that the effects of occasional binge drinking isn't in evidence, but they say 'may' and they say IS a trend towards neurodevelopment disorders, and there was no study conducted of when the binge occured - in early or later pregnancy. Another study also shows lower scores on IQ tests in general. Its not that i'm an intellect snob, i just can't believe i've done this! My whole life is one long line of self-inflicted nightmares...sigh.
A single binge drinking at the wrong time could = perfect baby being now not so perfect.