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Dr. says alcohol while pregnant o.k.!

6K views 109 replies 53 participants last post by  Storm Bride 
#1 ·
Have you heard this before? My cousin is pregnant and was openly drinking wine at her sister's graduation party last weekend. When asked she said her Dr. said on glass/drink a week is fine and won't hurt the baby! WTF!?! I have not heard this and have two young boys of my own, one born last August. I thought this theory had been proven way wrong long ago.

My midwife did tell me a glass of beer may help induce labor but only to be considered if I were to go over 41.5 weeks, I went over but never drank. But to have a drink every week of pregnancy to me is crazy, would you give your baby a drink every week? I think not.

Anyone else heard of this?

Maybe it's advice given out in the mainstream medical community, a community I stay far, far away from.
 
#3 ·
Yup. Especially wine and beer is totally a-okay assuming it's not all the time and not more than a glass or two (depending on the way you metabolize it).

Now if only DH would let me sip a maitai when we're in Kauai next month!!! Ya....not gonna happen!

FAS is a hot topic and some folks think 'it's not worth the risk' for even one drink. But theres no way one drink is going to cause FAS.
 
#4 ·
1 drink/week? Yeah, both my OB and midwife said that was fine. A great many do. No, that has not in any way been "debunked;" it's pretty common in most countries. The documented, studied problems with alcohol, FAS, etc. are at a much higher level than 1 drink/week. The US tends to recommend "absolutely no alcohol" because they believe if they say that any amount at all is okay that people will use it as an excuse to drink more than is okay.
 
#10 ·
I thought it was pretty well known that in Europe pregnant women have a glass of wine with dinner fairly often and their FAS rates are lower than the US. It's regular binge drinking that causes FAS, not the occasional glass of wine once a week. The US is pretty much the only country with the "any amount is dangerous" mindset.
 
#11 ·
Er... think about it. Throughout most of human history women have been drinking wine during pregnancy - be it for Shabbat, in places where the water is unsafe to drink, or simply because they enjoyed drinking wine. If FAS were caused by a single glass of wine a week, the human race wouldn't have made it this far. Not by a long shot.

And "would you give your baby a drink a week?" makes no sense in this context. No, I wouldn't; but I wouldn't give a fetus hot chips either, and I was happily scoffing away on them throughout my pregnancy. I wouldn't give a fetus any kind of food or drink, in fact... it's a fetus. The amount of alcohol passed on to the baby is not the same amount as the mother gets. Yes, excessive drinking can cause damage to the developing brain, liver etc of a baby - but the small amount of alcohol in a glass of wine? If so, as I said, entire generations of humans would have FAS.

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.
 
#12 ·
I've never been given a specific amount as a guideline, but I've also never had a care provider (OB, GP or midwife) tell me that it's necessary to completely abstain. What my first GP said about it was that the line between safe and unsafe isn't known, so it's generally prudent to just avoid it. He never suggested that it's totally unsafe, and I've never heard anything to suggest that it is, either.

I certainly don't think it's a "mainstream" idea that it's okay to have a drink or a few or whatever. The mainstream, widespread idea seems to be that FAS will be caused by having a sip of champagne at a friend's wedding when you're 8 months pregnant...
 
#13 ·
Most doctors will tell you that it's best to abstain totally from alcohol, but there are some out there that tell you a little bit here and there won't hurt (which is common knowledge). It's not surprising to me at all. Most women I know have a few sips of wine during their pregnancy without any fears.
 
#14 ·
I'll also add (though I haven't looked at the research myself, and it's been long time since I dug into this at all) that I've come across several references to FAS not being solely about alcohol at all. There's a belief in some quarters that people who drink to excess are almost always severely deficient on a nutritional front, and FAS may well be linked to nutritional deficiencies as well as/in addition to actual intake of alcohol. I keep meaning to dig into that again.

All that said...I think this is my first pregnancy where I haven't had a single drink, even once. Various things have come up in all my others where having a drink seemed reasonable.
 
#15 ·
I drink one glass pretty regularly, maybe like twice a week. Sometimes I even have two. No more than that though - I'm not going for "drunk" just mellow.


I did a LOT of research on this before I made the decision, and it turns out that the US really is the only country that thinks any alcohol in pregnancy makes you a bad mom, just like Talula said (sort of
). The US studies on FAS are based on consuming MORE THAN FIVE drinks REGULARLY. Sigh. Since studies can't ethically be performed using pregnant women as subjects, the data was simply extrapolated to say all alcohol = you're a bad mother. "Since no amount of alcohol has been PROVEN SAFE..." - see, it's cuz they can't do the studies to "prove" it.

European women have been drinking during pregnancy for a long long time. I'm okay with the risk, which I see as minimal. And besides, red wine helps with circulation, and our bodies are making a TON of extra blood while we're pregnant. We end up with 50% more at the end of pregnancy. It makes sense to me to drink a glass here and there.

Just my .02. I know I get looked at like a terrible mom all the time, though, by people who know I'm pregnant while I'm having a glass of wine. I similarly think they're crazy for vax'ing against chicken pox.
We all make our choices.
 
#17 ·
I had the occasional glass of wine/beer while pregnant with all three of my kids. I don't think it's a big deal. Excessive drinking is obviously harmful to both mother and child.
 
#18 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by vegasgrl View Post
"Since no amount of alcohol has been PROVEN SAFE..."
Exactly what I was going to say. In my first pregnancy, I was joking around with my OB during one of my appointments in December. I was turning 21 on New Year's Eve and was pregnant. I was telling him that I picked the perfect time to get pregnant. He told me to "go ahead and have one drink"...I didn't, as it was out of my comfort level, but I definitely was shocked. He then told me the above statement that I quoted and said he truly believed a glass of wine/1 beer a week or less isn't going to cause any harm.

I haven't had a drink since I found out I was pregnant again, but that's not to say I won't have that drink this New Year's Eve on my 25th birthday, even though I'll be 9 mos pregnant then
 
#19 ·
Blah- it's all fear tactics. It's dumb because nobody was preaching "No Drinking!!!" a hundred or so years ago and the human race survived.

It's like telling kids "Just Say No to Drugs!"

Drugs are fine in moderation- there are some you should really stay away from, but seriously, who really gets hurt from a little pot? Lets take that a step further- how are the side-effects of caffine any different than alchohol in intensity?

They pick the drugs they do for various reasons- I always thought the theory of who makes money off of the drugs to be a valid one. Why else have SO many OTC drugs? Why have these perscription commercials- the side effects of a lot of those are WAY worse than one "bad trip."

I'll get closer to topic though-

You tell people it's ok in moderation, and you get people who don't moderate their intake. These rules are there to protect the idiots and the ignorant. It's sad that the rest of us have to be misled, especially when it might possibly benefit our children.

I'd be interested in seeing a more social study on those groups of kids.
 
#21 ·
Haven't even read the comments, but mild drinking in pregnancy is fine. I read a study (and I wish I could find the link) that showed that they ahve NEVER EVER found an adverse effect from 2-10 drinks a week. Yes, binge drinking is bad, but a sane amount won't do anything.

FAS wasn't even discovered until like 1980.

On top of that Europeans have been drinking almost constantly for as far back as you can remember. Water purification has been a notorious problem in pre-modern European society, and so everyone always drank wine or beer (depending on location) because it was safer.

There's also a huge push in our society to get women to stop drinking, and this has been true at least since the Victorian era, probably even going back to the Puritans. It's a moral panic thing and this is the one scientific reason people have come up with why women shouldn't drink. Then there's the whole women's bodies are public property thing, which I won't get into here.

Also, notice that it's strictly consumption of alcoholic beverages that's a problem, never anything else that contains alcohol. I've never heard one person say a pregnant woman shouldn't use mouth wash (40 proof) or cough syrup. Heck, my midwife has encouraged my use of a couple of tinctures which are made with VODKA. If ANY alcohol was the problem, these would be verboten as well. And, yet, they're not.

So it's a social issue and total b.s. Don't binge drink, but the occasional glass of wine or beer will. not. cause problems.
 
#23 ·
Not pregnant ... but, I'm from eastern Europe. It's totally normal there to drink while pregnant. I don't mean getting wasted at a bar. I mean a small glass of wine with dinner. Or a small beer after work.

From my culture, drinking while pregnant is no big deal at all. Again, I do NOT mean getting wasted on hard liquor. Every doctor in my country would tell you that it's OK to have a glass of wine here and there while pregnant. Small amounts have never proven to be harmful. And wine has antioxidants.
I'm always surprised by the American extremism towards alcohol. No offense meant by this (I actually don't drink at all) ... it just surprises me that the guidelines in America are so darn extreme.
 
#25 ·
Yup, I've heard that for awhile now. Basically along the lines that most women don't even realize they are pregnant until a missed period and most will drink something at some point during that and not to fret. I've also heard that once you are buzzed (during pregnancy and nursing) the baby is (sometimes borderline depending on weights and everything of everyone involved) drunk.

That said, most of the "no-no's" in America are because we seem to lack the ability of self control. Most things in MODERATION are just fine during pregnancy. Very few other places are as strict as we (general we) are when it comes to that sort of thing. There is a difference between having a glass of wine/alcohol at an event and getting wasted but once you (again general
) are pregnant it seems a lot of people forget that.
 
#26 ·
"If someone grilled me indignantly on the educated decision I made I would tell them where they could stick it. "

Yeah, my problem is that the only person grilling my is my husband. Who, because HE doesn't like alcohol at all is absolutely convinced that any alcohol ever by anyone in any circumstance is bad and should never ever be done, ever.

Let's just say we're working on this.
 
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