Drinking during pregnancy!

dodgyme

there are always the non or very low alcohol beers and wine now:D

leesmom

havent read the other replies as i have my lil man on my knee,but i think its very selfish to drink while you are pregnant.what difference is it going to make to you,to not drink for 9 months,its only 9months,hardly a lifetime.for me all i had to think about was my lil baby inside me,it certainly wouldnt have been relaxin for me to be thinkin of my baby getting alcohol put into his system when there was no need for it.its not like your goin to put flippin vodka or wine in ur babies bottle when he/she is born so why do it when they are inside u?

Black Swan

Drinking during pregnancy? Ever hear of FAS or FAE (fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects)? If preggers, I would not have a sip after reading the literature on what alcohol can do to the fetus!

Eyeofthetiger

Just wanted to add my 2 cents to this.
I only discovered I was pregnant very far into my pregnancy. Between becoming pregnant I had - a going away party, a 21st and general nights out where I would have been drinking. I'm not the world's biggest drinker or anything but I remember after finding out I was pregnant I was having panic attacks because I was afraid I had damaged my unborn child.
In the end she turned out perfect and still is to this day and I do wish I hadn't worried so much.
I really think it depends on the person and a small amount of alcohol within reason would have been ok for me too.

Loomis

Quality wrote:

Do you think it is acceptable to drink in pregnancy?


Personally for me, A glass of wine (spritzer) at an occasion or the odd bottle of beer, I am not talking about every day, but from time to time a drink can be warranted.


I would not drink spirits.

What is everyone elses view on this?

Do you think it's fine to have the odd cigarette while pregnant?

Ludo

Mr. Anderson wrote: »

Do you think it's fine to have the odd cigarette while pregnant?

What has that got to do with the topic? May as well ask about heroin altogether.

Studies vary wildly from saying absolutely no alcohol to some doctors recommending a glass or two of red wine a week to help blood circulation.

Discuss it with your doctor.

Quackles

I wouldn't drink or smoke when pregnant. I never smoked and drinking doesn't mean that much to me, I can stop any time I did have 3 cans of cider before finding out I was pregnant, though :eek: I don't eat the foods they advise against eating, such as peanuts (first child had allergies, doing everything I can to prevent that again), unpasteurised cheese, shellfish, whipped ice cream, coffee, tea... But, that said, I do eat a load of rubbish. Mmm, banshee bones and kfc! And I haven't the energy to exercise.. None of us are doing everything by the book, all I can do is the best I can. If rubbishy food is all that sounds appetising for me (still only 11 weeks and appetite is crap), then I'll eat them til I feel better and hopefully adjust my diet then. On the plus side, chocolate is making me sick, so I've given that up too

luckat

Can't understand why anyone would drink or smoke when they're pregnant. You're cooking up a new person, and you want to give them the best start you can.

Good food, light exercise, no intoxicants, good sleep, gentle and calm living, good music. Try a little Mozart.

By the way, it's really not a great idea to eat junk food when you're pregnant - look at this BBC piece: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6940852.stm

It's honestly just as easy to buy a good fillet steak and cook it with fresh vegetables and steamed spuds, and it's certainly as delicious. If you don't believe me, pm me and come over to my house and I'll cook you a meal.

Loomis

Ludo wrote: »

What has that got to do with the topic? May as well ask about heroin altogether.

Studies vary wildly from saying absolutely no alcohol to some doctors recommending a glass or two of red wine a week to help blood circulation.

Discuss it with your doctor.

Cigarettes and alcohol are the most widely used legal drugs. Lots of other users have mentioned smoking in the thread in the same manner. Mentioning heroin is not much of a point.
Smoking and drinking while pregnant are both considered in the same thought. Both can affect the unborn child. Yet I can imagine a lot of people would say a drink here or there is ok before they would say it about a smoke. Which would be hypocritical but I can still see many people taking that view. Just asking again because I asked Quality on page 2 and got no response but she seemed to have a dig at someone a few posts back about not answering her questions.

Quality

Mr. Anderson wrote: »

Cigarettes and alcohol are the most widely used legal drugs. Lots of other users have mentioned smoking in the thread in the same manner. Mentioning heroin is not much of a point.
Smoking and drinking while pregnant are both considered in the same thought. Both can affect the unborn child. Yet I can imagine a lot of people would say a drink here or there is ok before they would say it about a smoke. Which would be hypocritical but I can still see many people taking that view. Just asking again because I asked Quality on page 2 and got no response but she seemed to have a dig at someone a few posts back about not answering her questions.

I was a smoker before, but have never smoked during pregnancy or breastfeeding. I dont plan on starting smoking again after this pregnancy.

My opinion is I personally would not smoke during pregnancy.

Quackles

luckat wrote: »

Can't understand why anyone would drink or smoke when they're pregnant. You're cooking up a new person, and you want to give them the best start you can.

Good food, light exercise, no intoxicants, good sleep, gentle and calm living, good music. Try a little Mozart.

By the way, it's really not a great idea to eat junk food when you're pregnant - look at this BBC piece: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6940852.stm

It's honestly just as easy to buy a good fillet steak and cook it with fresh vegetables and steamed spuds, and it's certainly as delicious. If you don't believe me, pm me and come over to my house and I'll cook you a meal.

Good sleep... very funny, you're quite the comedian

Ah my diet isn't that bad, I do cook most nights, but caving more than I should. I know it isn't the best, I will change it as I start to feel a bit better.

faceman

luckat wrote: »

It's honestly just as easy to buy a good fillet steak and cook it with fresh vegetables and steamed spuds, and it's certainly as delicious. If you don't believe me, pm me and come over to my house and I'll cook you a meal.

The whole thread is over to yours this weekend so!

Grawns

I stopped drinking and smoking immediately I found out. Smoking was easy but I do miss the odd glass of red wine. Have no intention of drinking during the pregnancy but that's cause I would just miss wine more if I had the odd glass ( after 12 weeks ). That being said I don't know anyone ( 6 friends and 2 sisters) who didn't have the odd drink while pregnant and their children are all perfect. Just another thing to beat women up about.

MagicMarker

Grawns wrote: »

I stopped drinking and smoking immediately I found out. Smoking was easy but I do miss the odd glass of red wine. Have no intention of drinking during the pregnancy but that's cause I would just miss wine more if I had the odd glass ( after 12 weeks ). That being said I don't know anyone ( 6 friends and 2 sisters) who didn't have the odd drink while pregnant and their children are all perfect. Just another thing to beat women up about.

So why did you stop then? If it's just another thing to beat women up about.

Grawns

I may yet have a drink :P

Nevyn

I had several glasses of guiness ( 1 to 2 per ocassion ) or a glass of wine once I hit my 3 trimester on my first and the same when I was having my second.

I personally considered the ocassional single glass less then once a week once the plencenta was well developed to be a risk I was happy to take.

It's well known that women in the last few weeks to get the goo on them and it can be what kick starts labour.

marti101

I had the odd drink but really i really went right off it.The best non alcoholic beer is becks,it tastes just like beer.The wine i wouldnt touch agau=in ,it was disgusting.I think smoking is worse cause you would tend to smoke more than drink.You could have 20 smokes but your not really going to hab=ve 20 cans.I think the worst thing is seeing pregnant women outside hospitals having a smoke you dont see them outside having a 2 litre of cider.I dont smoke never have and am bf so dont drink either

Loomis

Quality wrote: »

I was a smoker before, but have never smoked during pregnancy or breastfeeding. I dont plan on starting smoking again after this pregnancy.

My opinion is I personally would not smoke during pregnancy.

If you feel the odd drink won't do any harm then the odd smoke shouldn't either...

Hotblack Desiato

leesmom wrote: »

its not like your goin to put flippin vodka or wine in ur babies bottle when he/she is born so why do it when they are inside u?

Not vodka, but whiskey... happened to a lot of babies until not so long ago and didn't do them any harm. I'm not recommending it to anyone and wouldn't do it with my daughter, but it is easy to get OTT about everything these days. I wouldn't worry about the odd drink later in pregnancy, my wife stayed off it altogether for the first few months, after that she had one (and I mean ONE) glass of wine or small beer a week, did neither of them any harm at all.

This sort of debate is very reminiscent of drink-driving, there are people out there basically advocating that if you drank half a mouthful of shandy 3 days ago you shouldn't drive :rolleyes: Alcohol does not enhance either driving or pregnancy, but that doesn't mean that SMALL amounts do harm, especially when compared to all the other risks in life we don't know about or can't control. It is important to be happy and I don't want myself, my wife or my child going through life getting uptight about trace amounts of substances. You can't keep kids in a bubble, and even if you could you would do them more harm socially than good. Before you know it they will be eating muck in the garden, it is not recommended but will not kill them...

Hotblack Desiato

Mr. Anderson wrote: »

If you feel the odd drink won't do any harm then the odd smoke shouldn't either...

You are comparing two totally different drugs with two totally different delivery methods and sets of effects, for no reason other than that they both happen to be popular and legal.

Carbon monoxide from cigarettes goes straight across the placenta, reducing the oxygen supply to the baby within seconds. Alcohol does not do this. Inhaled drugs are surpassed in the intensity and speed of their effects only to injected drugs.

Let's pretend you are Mrs. Anderson.
If you have back pain late in pregnancy will you take painkillers? Your baby gets these too.

In labour you will probably be offered pethidine. This is an opiate drug (i.e. the morphine and heroin family) and is known to make babies more drowsy, sometimes for days. In other words it enters their body and remains there for quite some time.

Unless something was a definite medical no-no I wouldn't stop my wife from doing it. She's the one sacrificing her body for months on end to make our baby and if I got on my high horse she'd tell me where to go, and she'd be right.

Loomis

ninja900 wrote: »

You are comparing two totally different drugs with two totally different delivery methods and sets of effects, for no reason other than that they both happen to be popular and legal.

Carbon monoxide from cigarettes goes straight across the placenta, reducing the oxygen supply to the baby within seconds. Alcohol does not do this. Inhaled drugs are surpassed in the intensity and speed of their effects only to injected drugs.

Let's pretend you are Mrs. Anderson.
If you have back pain late in pregnancy will you take painkillers? Your baby gets these too.

In labour you will probably be offered pethidine. This is an opiate drug (i.e. the morphine and heroin family) and is known to make babies more drowsy, sometimes for days. In other words it enters their body and remains there for quite some time.

Unless something was a definite medical no-no I wouldn't stop my wife from doing it. She's the one sacrificing her body for months on end to make our baby and if I got on my high horse she'd tell me where to go, and she'd be right.

I picked it because they're the two legal drugs that are still frowned upon if a woman is pregnant. Obviously citing heroin as an example would be pointless. Both are frowned upon but women still do these two which is why I asked

My brothers girf is drinking during her pregnancy and while i agree sitting over a glass of wine or a beer is fine , a few bottles of WKD or a vodka and lime is a no no.

My boyfriend says when/if we have children he would give up drink no problem for the 9 months which I though was really sweet

Grawns

Getting my husband to have a drink is difficult! He probably drinks with his childhood friends ( in UK) about 3 times a year. And he's such a cute drunk too. Does make it very easy for me to steer clear though as we were on holiday in Greece last week and he didn't touch a drop.

I miss red wine with my meals when eating out ( he always has a coke)

MagicMarker

The way i see it, drinking while pregnant is a little bit like going 100km/h in a 50km zone.

Yeah, more often than not, nothing will happen, but there will be a time when something will happen.

The people who speed to that extent probably think they're fabulous drivers and would never admit that they could end up hurting someone, or worse.

But the truth is, it happens. So, no matter how confident you are that your child will be fine, you just DON'T KNOW.

And if you're willing to take that risk with your own unborn child, then that says a lot about you tbh.

Nevyn

There are certain things which we know due to a huge ammount of medical data are harmful for all expectant mother's to consume/imbibe and are others which expectant mother's are warned off and warned to be careful about but end of the day it is a person's choice when it comes to those things which there is not a huge ammount of clear data on.

faceman

MagicMarker wrote: »

The way i see it, drinking while pregnant is a little bit like going 100km/h in a 50km zone.

Yeah, more often than not, nothing will happen, but there will be a time when something will happen.

The people who speed to that extent probably think they're fabulous drivers and would never admit that they could end up hurting someone, or worse.

But the truth is, it happens. So, no matter how confident you are that your child will be fine, you just DON'T KNOW.

And if you're willing to take that risk with your own unborn child, then that says a lot about you tbh.

I used to agree with you until about a year ago when i read up on recent medical studies which point out that a small amount of alcohol intake after the first 3 months is of no risk.

However i feel to see why anyone would have a longing for a glass of vodka, bottle of WKD or Barcardi Breezer at that stage. I can understand someone wanting to enjoy a glass of wine with a meal tho.

Hotblack Desiato

MagicMarker wrote: »

The way i see it, drinking while pregnant is a little bit like going 100km/h in a 50km zone.

Fine, but lots of other people, including myself would see a statment like that as over the top to the point of being ridiculous.

Having the odd drink while pregnant would be more like going 51km/h in a 50km/h zone. In other words lots of people do it and yet there is no evidence showing that it is dangerous (because any risk is so small as to be less than the margin of error of any study you can do - just as no speedometer or even speed gun is guaranteed to be accurate to within 1km/h.)

So, no matter how confident you are that your child will be fine, you just DON'T KNOW.

so let's say the baby is not perfect, how do you know that your one glass of wine a week did it? You don't. Nobody can. You could seal yourself in an oxygen filled bubble for nine months and still have had the same outcome.

And if you're willing to take that risk with your own unborn child, then that says a lot about you tbh.

Nonsense. Why not worry about something important instead. If you have the time to worry about every little thing to do with parenting I'd love to know how! Just make your decisions and do your best in your own way and (important bit) respect the decisions of others doing likewise even if those decisions might differ from the ones you would make - that doesn't make them irresponsible or bad.

MagicMarker

ninja900 wrote: »

so let's say the baby is not perfect, how do you know that your one glass of wine a week did it? You don't. Nobody can. You could seal yourself in an oxygen filled bubble for nine months and still have had the same outcome.

Yeah you could, but why not do what you can in the mean time?

I think your logic is flawed somewhat, it could be applied to anything. Including ciggarettes, hash, coke, even shooting heroin during the early stages of pregnancy, if there is something wrong with their child, how do we know it was because of heroin?

Taking an ignorance is bliss approach to this is, well, ignorant.

Hotblack Desiato

MagicMarker wrote: »

Yeah you could, but why not do what you can in the mean time?

Why stress about something which has no evidence of harm associated with it? in spite of studies having been carried out.
(I fully expect you to reply to this with a study involving alcoholics, or something... not relevant at all to what we are talking about, alcohol in very limited quantities.)

I think your logic is flawed somewhat, it could be applied to anything. Including ciggarettes, hash, coke, even shooting heroin during the early stages of pregnancy, if there is something wrong with their child, how do we know it was because of heroin?

No, it's your logic that is flawed.
The other things you have mentioned are all proven to cause harm. As alcohol is, in excessive quantities.
It would be prudent to avoid it altogether in early pregnancy, as if there is any tiny risk that is when it will be. (It would help if Irish people could manage to have sex without getting drunk first)

Taking an ignorance is bliss approach to this is, well, ignorant.

That's not what anyone is saying.

nesf

MagicMarker wrote: »

The way i see it, drinking while pregnant is a little bit like going 100km/h in a 50km zone.

Yeah, more often than not, nothing will happen, but there will be a time when something will happen.

The people who speed to that extent probably think they're fabulous drivers and would never admit that they could end up hurting someone, or worse.

But the truth is, it happens. So, no matter how confident you are that your child will be fine, you just DON'T KNOW.

And if you're willing to take that risk with your own unborn child, then that says a lot about you tbh.

Large amounts of alcohol are bad for an unborn child; however, small amounts don't really have an effect. The thing is, most people have trouble just having one small glass of wine and are better off not drinking at all than risking having "just another one". The most effective way to get people to consume small amounts is to tell them to consume none at all but that doesn't mean that small amounts are damaging etc.

You are overstating the risks involved in drinking here.