Drinking during pregnancy!

dubman25 wrote: »

no not even 1 drink...i mean its like 9-10 months out of your life without drinking big deal!!!1 drink and the baby is actually drinking it also:eek:and you are putting the baby at huge risk of problems even in future life!!the women who drink even 1 deserve to have the worse birth ever and be in lots and lots of pain after it!!!:Dbitc*s

Banned for trolling. One week, to start with anyway.

Don't smoke. Had about 3 drinks in total during my last pregnancy. Glass of wine at Christmas, wedding anniversary and family funeral. Why? Because I like the taste of wine and missed it.
What gets me about this thread is the attitude that people drink for the effect ie: to get pissed. No wonder we have so many drink related problems in this country. There are some people who are able to stop at 1 and are happy to drink just 1 because I enhances the dining experience, relaxes after a busy day etc.

MagicMarker wrote: »

''enhances the dining experience''? :rolleyes:

Crea, would you give your new born baby alcohol?

No - I wouldn't give my newborn cornflakes either but that won't stop me from eating them. Don't lecture me about the difference between cornflakes and alcohol i'm not an idiot.
Perhaps I wasn't clear but the second part of my post wasn't related specifically to drinking in pregnancy but about the attitude to having only 1 drink. I was describing where people can be happy only to have 1 glass of wine.

Loladub - one glass of wine on a special occasion is not "hitting the bottle".
There were a number of comments asking what the point of having only 1 drink was and seemed incredulous that a pregnant woman would stop at that.
It just struck me that people had the attitude that one only drinks to get drunk and that's why I mentioned it. I promise in future I won't deviate from the original post.:p

Loladub - just a quick answer to your question. I'm happy to have just 1 drink to have a little taste. I do truly believe that such a low level of alcohol has no adverse affect on the baby especially since it was done so rarely.
The ill effects of drinking like low birth weight and FAS seem to be in babies of women drinking 15-20 units a week. 15 units is around a pint a day so consumption doesn't have to be huge.
Did pregnancy yogo for relaxation - highly recommend it.

pixiestix wrote: »

i guess i shouldnt eat ham sambos either, cos all the salt, or breath in when i am in the city centre, cos god forbid i might inhale germs...these are the little things that help a babies immune learn to fight, they are needed.....i think the worst thing you can do is wrap you lil roundy self up in cotton wool and start resenting people and places, having the odd drink is fine, babies are born with disabilities to parents who never drank or smoked, i just dont see the point in totally depriving yourself of something, when really a little bit will probably cheer you up when you are having a rotter of a preggers day....chilling in a lovely bath with a little white wine spritzer can be best thing for mother and baby as it makes mammy happy, relaxed and calm, which in turn makes baby happy...

..but that is just my opinion

Nonsense.

Young kids are dieing of all type's of cancer's who never drank or smoke, this doesn't mean that they should.

Like everything in life you should where possible do your best to give yoursrelf and your unborn/born etc the best chance possible WHERE POSSIBLE. eating as good a diet as possible, exercising not abusing drink or drugs etc etc etc

But just because people smoke till there 90 and don't die of cancer everyone should smoke it's about given your unborn THE BEST CHANCE POOSIBLE

You don't have to drink, drink doesn't do anything GOOD for the baby but even if there's the smallest tiniest possible chance in the world it might then as you don't NEED to drink you would be better of not drinking

is this a difficult concept to understand?

It's very possible you will have to breath to live during this breating process that keeps you alive you might inhale all sorts of crap but you HAVE to breath to keep you and the child alive you don't HAVE to drink.

seeing a common theme yet?

The blood thinning properties of red wine are well reported.
My father, who has heart problems used to take warfrin to thin his blood. His doc told him a glass of red wine would be better than his medication. Unfortunately dad didn't drink

I once read, that in France, women are generally recommended to have a glass of wine daily to keep the blood thin and therefore nutrients flowing to the baby from the mothers blood stream.

What if a daily glass of wine was actually beneficial??

There is a huge stigma to women drinking during pregnancy! Remember Gywenth Paltrow going public? Wow that caused outrage!
This thread has asked for opinions so i will give my opinion, with no reflection on those who disagree, I do not agree with drinking during pregnancy, because for the very fact there is no evidence to prove it is definately fine to drink, alcohol gets me drunk i do stupid things when i'm drunk, can you imagine the effects it may have on the little one i am carrying!
But maybe i am anal in my views, because i found coffee to have bad effects on my pregnancies, when i get pregnant again i will not touch caffeine. I will be a nightmare to people with open minds :rolleyes:

pixiestix wrote: »

nonsense? whatever, i can have my opinions, and for a man to tell me what i do in my pregnancy is nonsense is just pathetic, i would love to see a man go thru what women go thru in pregnancy and childbirth and all the aftercare and breastfeeding, hell, men cant even cope with "man flu" so you can stick your "nonsense" comment right up your wazzoo, and i will sip my ONE glass of wine tonight, happy in the knowledge that the 3 other glasses of wine i had when i was pregnant didn't harm my daughter in any way, shape or form.

Each pregnant woman knows what is and is not good for her, each pregnant woman is totally different, don't condemn someone for something you will never know.

Of course you can have your opinion and I'm entitled to mine.
I said on numerous posts here I would never ever under any circumstances tell my partner what to do or not what to do during her pregnancy this is not the issue eithier so I dont know why you're bring it up.

men can't handle a flu what on earth has that got to do with force feeding an unborn baby alcohol?

Your gloating that you forced alcohol on your unborn child and you don't mind because as far as you know it didn't do any harm? really?

wow, just wow....

Condeming women is not the issue eithier you seem to have problems following this thread I'm stating my thoughts on force feeding an unborn child alcohol

you wouldn't do it to a week old baby you wouldn't do it to a 12yr old why on earth would you do it to a vunerable unborn??

bizzare...

lostinnappies wrote: »

I think that any mother should be willing to sacrifice nine months of "good behaviour" for the sake of their darling child.

ntlbell wrote: »

that you only have to go without for 9 months of your life per child.

It isn't just 9 months though is it? The pregnancy is 9 months, breastfeeding is another 3 at least. Very likely longer, I plan to be breastfeeding for 9 months to a year, so that's 18/21 months. The first time I was ttc I would not drink during the 2/3 week period between ovulation and confirmation/period.

Since my miscarriage I've drank once and it had a foul effect on me, so I haven't drank since then. Which means that if I happen to be pregnant this month (unlikely as I've had a negative test this morning) I won't have alcohol for close to 2 years.

And it isn't just alcohol. I currently have the flu. I feel totally manky, I can't sleep as my nose is clogged, I'm achey, my throat hurts and I have a cough, yet on the off chance that I'm pregnant I can't have anything other than paracetamol. I can't take a long hot bath to ease my muscles as long hot baths increase risk of miscarriage. I can't use muscle rub or decongestant rub as clove oil, eucalyptus oil and other ingredients in these things increase chance of miscarriage. And I have the joy of knowing that for the next two years, minimum (because it could take me months/years to conceive again and go to term) many of these things we normally take for granted are off limits to me.

And that's before we get to food. Limited fish, no nuts, limited cheese, limited/no caffeine, no rare/cured meat, limited herbs and spices. And that doesn't even begin to include what can and can't be kept down due to nausea.

All in all there is no way we are going to be able to avoid everything we shouldn't eat/do in pregnancy. The idea is that we cut down and avoid excessive consumption. Bear in mind that most of the things we now try to avoid weren't even known to be a problem until recently. How many of our mothers drank gallons of tea and coffee during our time in vitro? I know my mum snacked on peanuts most nights of all her pregnancies. How many of our grandmothers were recommended Guinness as a pregnancy tonic by doctors? French women are still recommended red wine and aren't prohibited soft cheeses. I even know a child who's mother was a heroin addict all through it's gestation and is a 100% healthy kid now.

It's a guide, avoid vetoed food and drink as much as possible, but the odd glass of wine will not do any lasting harm. It is very much proven by the fact that we are each and everyone of us descended from people who's mothers drank during pregnancy.

ntlbell wrote: »

right, we're into "sure heroin addicts have kids and they're grand"

you obviously never witness the pain some kids have to go through to be fed physeptone for there first few weeks/months of their lives

christ all bleedin mighty

i've heard it all now

and

i think i've heard enough...

Please let it be so...

ntlbell wrote: »

right, we're into "sure heroin addicts have kids and they're grand"

I'm in no way condoning heroin use during pregnancy, but the fact is that babies are born to heroin addicts and once they pull through the initial period after birth. Which, yes, is dangerous and painful. The child is then very likely to go through life with no negative side-effects. I used to work for a children's charity and came into contact with kids like this on occasion. And I've read numerous studies on it.

iguana wrote: »

I'm in no way condoning heroin use during pregnancy, but the fact is that babies are born to heroin addicts and once they pull through the initial period after birth. Which, yes, is dangerous and painful. The child is then very likely to go through life with no negative side-effects. I used to work for a children's charity and came into contact with kids like this on occasion. And I've read numerous studies on it.

I never said you were condoning it but bringing it to table to add to your argument is absloute nonsense.

When the child gets through detoxing off heroin (i can't belive i'm still discussing this) in Ireland do you know how many of the cases are followed up on? how many are followed through their education etc to see if any problems occured? I'll tell you how many 0 not one.

Alot of the problems that the studies shows are things that would be not very obvious. learning difficulties problems staying focused/concentrating. when a child who falls behind in school and ends up dropping out do you think the parents ever think "oh that's cause i was sipping on spritzers" or "that was because i was banging up"

The majority of the issues related to drink are not missing arms are obvious defects they're mental and won't be obvious, this doesn't mean evertythings ok

your argument is off the wall...

iguana wrote: »

Wrong. My old organisation does, in Ireland and the UK. Besides that comprehensive studies are carried out in other countries, it is not necessary for each and every government to carry out a study. Studies on the MMR vaccine weren't carried out by each and every country, yet they all officially state it is safe.

I also have a child I know well who was a heroin baby and is an extremely bright, fast learner with no behavioral problems. Granted we'll never know how bright the child would have been without being exposed to heroin. But the child is far, far advanced in abilities and comprehension above it's age group. While still too young for comprehensive testing my guess is that the child has an IQ of 130-140+.

Does that make the parents choice to have a baby in those circumstances ok? Of course it doesn't, a lot of people no longer speak to the parents, who the child no longer lives with. I lost a baby two months ago, I can't describe the level of anger I feel at anyone who doesn't do the best for their baby. But an occasional drink will not cause a problem during pregnancy. Will I drink when I get pregnant again? Probably not, but if I do I also know that it won't cause any problems.

have you any links to the organisations? or links to any studies they carried out on baby's born to heroin addicts in ireland? any facts at all? i'd love to see them and i'd love to be wrong on this as it's pretty close to home.

links to any tests done or the results or papers carried out in these would be great

I know a few people who had kids while taken heroin and do have problems you know some that don't does it mean it doesn't cause problems? would those problems be there anyway? again it's why take the chance

if there is the smallest tinest possiblity in the world that it might cause a problem it's something that is very easy to avoid so why bother?

trying to avoid every single bit of food that may or may not cause a problem would be probably very difficult but if it's something easy that you know might cause a problem how tiny the chance is why bother? is drink that important in your life? (not you personally, anyone) if it is then maybe you (not you personally) should hold of and wait till it's not.

your now guessing people's IQ levels to make a point?

really?

this is getting seriously rediclous now

iguana wrote: »

I'd suggest you investigate the findings of Suzanne R. Sage, coordinator of the Teratogen Information Service at University of South Florida.

Most of the adverse effects of heroin on babies, beyond initial withdrawal, tends to be a result of factors that go hand in hand with heroin use. Poor nutrition, exposure to diseases in dirty needles. Followed by poor upbringing, neglect and lack of necessary stimuli for the baby in it's early years. A baby which is swiftly placed in good care following withdrawal usually grows up devoid of problems. On a scientific level pre-natal heroin exposure appears to have none to minimal effects.

florida? sorry i was under the impression your organisation did it in ireland and the uk? what did they find? release any papers based on the findings in ireland? you said they followed up with testing on kids born out of heriun addiction in ireland?

iguana wrote: »

They monitor them, they are a children's charity, not scientists. As I've also explained monitoring heroin babies as they grow up is extremely difficult due to the other factors of those children's lives. And that scientific studies done in one country are used by others, eg MMR, as biology does not recognise national borders.

But you obviously have a tendency to pick and choose certain sentences to suit your own agenda. The most comprehensive study in the world, to date, on this subject was done in Florida. If you have a genuine interest in the subject I suggest you look into it.

Tbh, you are coming across as someone who has made up his mind on the subject and is not interested in anything which counters that. It's an attitude prevalent in the closed-minded and in teenagers. For your sake I hope you are the latter and that you grow out of it.

oh a childrens charity sorry, what I was referring to was in ireland there are no studies done, no one follows up with the kids to watch for abnormalities etc no real tests are done it's great that some volunteers do but you haven't said what they do? give kids born with heroin addictions IQ tests? super..

you said there was, I ask you to show me them and then you change it to "oh no they're not scientists" then claim i'm chaninging things to suit myself? right.

I'm a very open minded person it's just I have a small issue with people banging up heroin while pregnant which seems to make me a closed minded teenager. call me a tad touched in the head...

ntlbell wrote: »

you said there was, I ask you to show me them and then you change it to "oh no they're not scientists" then claim i'm chaninging things to suit myself? right.

I said form my second post on this thread that I had worked for a children's charity. You never asked for scientific studies, you stated nobody monitors these children through their school years.

ntlbell wrote:

in Ireland do you know how many of the cases are followed up on? how many are followed through their education etc to see if any problems occured? I'll tell you how many 0 not one.

I told you that the group I worked for do. I never once claimed that they carried out extensive scientific studies, why would a children's charity to that? They look after the children in their care.

You then stated that for personal reasons you would like to know more about the impact of prenatal heroin exposure, so I pointed you in the direction of the most comprehensive study done on the subject. But obviously you don't have much interest in the subject as you would have taken the time to look into that study instead of continuing to find fault with me. Which just confirms my feeling that you are closed-minded and not even slightly interested in learning anything which challenges your preconceptions.

iguana wrote: »

You then stated that for personal reasons you would like to know more about the impact of prenatal heroin exposure, so I pointed you in the direction of the most comprehensive study done on the subject. But obviously you don't have much interest in the subject as you would have taken the time to look into that study instead of continuing to find fault with me. Which just confirms my feeling that you are closed-minded and not even slightly interested in learning anything which challenges your preconceptions.

i have read it see the quotes?

iguana wrote: »

Which is to due to the socio-economic factors relating to the majority of heroin users, as I already stated several posts ago. Poor nutrition, healthcare and ill-health caused by dirty needles not the heroin itself.

Stop reading selectively.

dirty needles don't cause still birth's...

you try the non selective reading...