Dr. says alcohol while pregnant o.k.! - Page 3

[boobs4milk]

Well said, Rhiana!

I don't drink while pg OR nursing, even though it was suggested to drink dark beer to increase supply at one of my LLL meetings (by a 'seasoned' mom, not a leader).

Being pregnant is all about doing what is best for the baby. The best for the baby would be to avoid alcohol at any level. Besides, I've seen women who have ONE drink and start losing clothes and sitting on strange men's laps!

[RunnerDuck]

Originally Posted by RhianaW14

I want to know who the people are who subject their pregnancies to become a part of these studies to see how many drinks are "OK" to have and how many will lead to FAS. Because if that sort of research hasn't been done, then there is no way I am going to drink during my pregnancy and put my baby at risk.

If I can't wait 9 mos to have a drink of wine, then I would have to worry about myself. lol
I can drink, and I do, when not pregnant, and I have no problems quitting cold turkey when I am pregnant. I owe it to the baby to not pump alcohol into my body. It reaches the baby. I wouldn't just put some wine into a baby bottle and give it to her, so why do it now?
Is there proof that it IS damaging to have 1 glass? What about, is there proof that it ISN'T?

ETA from the March of Dimes website:


http://www.marchofdimes.com/professi...14332_1170.asp

I don't think there are actual studies... but you can look at cultures where drinking, pregnant or otherwise, is more the norm - ie wine with dinner is just what you do - and say, well, they don't have these rates of FAS that we worry about. It's not like they take a bunch of pregnant women and say OK you're going to have 14 beers a week and you're going to have 6 and you're going to have none.

Much of what we know about pregnancy is drinking is self reported. The "there is no safe amount, FAS can happen with fewer than 7 drinks a week" could be partly not wanting to give the go-ahead and then get sued for bad advice - but it could also be, you know, a lot of women aren't going to admit to drinking while pregnant. SO a woman has a FAS baby, maybe she says "But I only had 2 drinks!" - maybe she's telling the truth, maybe she isn't.

I personally don't think a few drinks will hurt, especially past the first trimester. But that said, I also never drank while pregnant just because, well, I didn't NEED to... I am a social drinker, I like a few beers, like 2 or 3, I like a buzz. I don't "enjoy" a glass of wine with dinner because I think wine is foul. Since being pregnant is enough of a buzz... well...

[cloudbutterfly]

My OB told me the occasional drink was fine. I'd done the research before that (but had just chosen not to drink up until that point anyway), so I took that to mean that she was capable of looking outside the mainstream medical community, since the mainstream advice is no alcohol, no way. Sort of like how the US government didn't think Americans were capable of understanding the differences between good and bad fats back in the 60s or whatever, so just sent out the message that all fat was bad. That's worked really well for the nation's health.

Personally, I miss soft and blue cheeses more than wine anyway! But I figure the very, very occasional glass of wine is more than fine, so I'll probably have a tiny two ounce pour a couple of times a month with our friends we do a lot of wine tasting with.

[LionessMom]

i thought red wine was good for you and baby. in moderation.

[Kristin0105]

When I was pregnant with my daughter 4 years ago my ob gave me an article that said that the research is unclear how much or how little alcohol is unsafe during pregnancy and therefore the recommendation is that no alcohol be consumed during pregnancy. Personally I think there are all sorts of reasons why drinking alcohol during pregnancy is a bad idea. Yes, the fetus does not get the full dose of alcohol that the mother does but it does get some. And while the brain is developing so rapidly I think it is a bad idea to have any alcohol passing it's way as alcohol kills brain cells. Also I don't think it is a good idea to have the fetus become acustomed to the taste and presence of alcohol in the blood. I think it's reasonable to believe that the presence of alcohol before birth might set up a predisposition for alcohol abuse in the future. That's my own personal supposition though. Having worked with pregnant substance abusers and their babies and older children in the past it will not surprise me if the research in the future proves that to be true.

The argument that people have drank alcohol throughout the ages during pregnancy and therefore it's okay doesn't hold water. People did lots of things in the past during pregnancy that we now know is not good for the developing fetus. Cigarettes come to mind.

What other people do is their personal decision but based on what I have read and seen I choose no alcohol.

Please forgive the typos. I had a m/c yesterday and my mind is a little out of whack today.

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by Smokering

I don't mean to be rude, but I hope you didn't shame the mother-to-be. Pregnancy is tough enough without misinformation contributing to the no-nos. I can't stand the taste of alcohol, but if I liked it I'd have no problems drinking a little - frankly I'd be more worried about coffee! (Although I don't like the taste of that either, so there you go...) The USA is hyper-paranoid about eats and drinks during pregnancy, IMO, and the last thing an informed mother needs while she's "openly" enjoying her one glass of wine or eating her soft cheese or sushi is being told she's crazy.

:

[simplykate]

Good balanced article:
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Fet...lSyndrome.html

I've continued to have a small glass of beer, sometimes wine, especially during third trimester.
I've been real queasy this whole pregnancy and beer seems to be the best cure.

[BekahMomToOliver]

Honestly, I'd be alot more worried about what it is I'm eating on a regular basis than the occasional glass of wine.
Nitrites, for example, scare the heck out of me, and they're in pretty much every morsel of even mildly processed meat you can get at the grocery store. What noone is screaming from the rooftops is that nitrites are preservatives that stay in your body (and your child's body, every time they eat sandwich meat or a hotdog). There is a direct link between these preservatives and childhood leukemia.
Again, it's all about common sense and moderation. But seriously, check out some of the stuff in your "harmless" everyday food, too. Perhaps then we can keep the so-called risk of an occasional alcoholic drink in perspective.

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

"I think it's reasonable to believe that the presence of alcohol before birth might set up a predisposition for alcohol abuse in the future."

I, and by extension every single one of my (eventual) children, have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. Severe alcoholism goes back several generations in my family, and has had a profound effect on my family's history.

I, unlike pretty much all of my ancestors, am NOT an alcoholic. Not even close. I do however have a rather high tolerance for alcohol which I think comes from my family history.

The attitude of absolute abstention from alcohol is simply NOT healthy as it creates this mystique of rebellion and forbiddenness which can lead to excessive consumption. I think we all know the stories of college kids going out to the bars for the first few times. Unlike my parents, I plan to de-mystify alcohol in my family in the hopes of preventing alcoholism. That means that drinking wine with dinner will be seen as absolutely normal. I intend to model responsible, moderate alcohol usage so that when my kids get off to college it's not seen as some huge deal (like it was for me, and pretty much everyone else I know).

The idea that occasional drinking in pregnancy sets up a fetus for alcoholism is ridiculous, because then every single person 2 generations back would be an alcoholic, and yeah, they're not.

[Talula Fairie]

Alcoholism is often genetic. Either your baby is created with those genes or not. Its not something that is developed in utero, though I'm sure it could be developed later in life without the pre-disposition (ah, nature vs nurture).

[pixiekisses]

Originally Posted by sunflwrmoonbeam

The attitude of absolute abstention from alcohol is simply NOT healthy as it creates this mystique of rebellion and forbiddenness which can lead to excessive consumption.

If you mean in pregnancy now, that is simply not true.
Absolute abstention from alcohol when pregnant is indeed healthy, and the only thing proven not damaging to the fetus.

[mamatiger]

Originally Posted by cloudbutterfly

Personally, I miss soft and blue cheeses more than wine anyway! But I figure the very, very occasional glass of wine is more than fine, so I'll probably have a tiny two ounce pour a couple of times a month with our friends we do a lot of wine tasting with.

The FDA changed it's guidelines on soft cheese in 2006... turns out that pasteurization kills any listeria that might be hanging out in the milk. It's OK to eat soft cheeses as long as the milk used to make it was pasteurized (and you follow the standard food safety protocol)! Just check the labels to be sure...

http://www.foodsafety.gov/~dms/rawmilk.html

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by pixiekisses

If you mean in pregnancy now, that is simply not true.
Absolute abstention from alcohol when pregnant is indeed healthy, and the only thing proven not damaging to the fetus.

It's actually not "proven". There are no studies on light drinking vs. moderate drinking vs. no drinking. For all we actually know to the contrary, it could be healthier to have an occasional drink than to not drink at all. We call it "proven", because abstaining is the only definite way to prevent damage caused by alcohol...but we don't actually know that abstaining is risk-free. We just assume that because "alcohol is bad".

If we're talking about subtle damage - and if we're talking about people having an occasional drink, then we're talking about subtle damage - it would take generations of data collection and accurate tracking of how much people drank, in order to get solid info. We don't have that.

[pixiekisses]

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

It's actually not "proven". There are no studies on light drinking vs. moderate drinking vs. no drinking. For all we actually know to the contrary, it could be healthier to have an occasional drink than to not drink at all. We call it "proven", because abstaining is the only definite way to prevent damage caused by alcohol...but we don't actually know that abstaining is risk-free. We just assume that because "alcohol is bad".

Are you talking about something else than me?
Of course it's proven healthy to not drink. At least there's no doubt about it where we live now. (I wouldn't know about the U.S./Canada.)

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by pixiekisses

Are you talking about something else than me?
Of course it's proven healthy to not drink. At least there's no doubt about it where we live now. (I wouldn't know about the U.S./Canada.)

Do you have any references? I've never seen any such proof. In fact, I have serious doubts that any such proof could actually exist.

[pixiekisses]

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

Do you have any references? I've never seen any such proof. In fact, I have serious doubts that any such proof could actually exist.

There's a language barrier here. Do you know any languages other than english? I have to see if I can find anything, because what I've read is not in english, or I have to translate it.

[choli]

The "No alcohol whatsoever during pregnancy" hysteria is mostly a USA thing. It's part of the whole culture of fear that is promoted, along with the "predators are everywhere waiting to snatch your child" and "never allow your 12 year old to play unsupervised, he might climb a tree and get killed".

[pixiekisses]

Well, I live in Europe, Scandinavia, with a no-alcohol during pregnancy, as the norm. As I said earlier, nobody here really drinks during pregnancy.

[Quindin]

Originally Posted by pixiekisses

Well, I live in Europe, Scandinavia, with a no-alcohol during pregnancy, as the norm. As I said earlier, nobody here really drinks during pregnancy.

Actually, the SIL midwife I told about earlier (who tells her patients to have a glass of wine to relax if needed), is Danish.
Other midwives there told me the same.

I had my first 2 children in Denmark, and while it is true that they differ from other European countries when it comes to recommendation for alcohol abstinence, it is mostly referred to the first trimester. And there is not AT ALL the same "pregnancy police" mentality they have in the US.

And no, it was not strange to see pregnant women drinking the occasional wine, and most people were surprised when I would say "no thanks" to a glass.

[Sailor]

Originally Posted by RhianaW14

I want to know who the people are who subject their pregnancies to become a part of these studies to see how many drinks are "OK" to have and how many will lead to FAS. Because if that sort of research hasn't been done, then there is no way I am going to drink during my pregnancy and put my baby at risk.

I don't think you need a study for this. You just need to look at Europe. There are exceptions in every country, but look at Eastern Europe and look at the more southern parts. Drinking during pregnancy (in moderation) is totally normal in those parts.

The birth defects (or other problems) are no higher than in any other developed country. And it is VERY common in Europe to drink during pregnancy. This has been true for hundreds - no, thousands - of years there.

No one has any problems beyond the norm, if you look at birth studies across countries.

So, from that, you can certainly conjecture that drinking in moderation leads to no issues.

As someone else pointed out, I also think the American idea of drinking can lead to harm comes from everyone having to be careful of lawsuits. If something happens, it's not uncommon for a woman to start suing her doctor because of his advice. It's why doctors pay high amounts of insurance to protect themselves against such lawsuits.