Drinking Wine during the 3rd trimester????

[Anonymous]

The listen to your body poster's advice is moronic....perhaps Darwin will kick in.

[Anonymous]

It is also moronic to take some anonymous poster's regurgitation of something they read or heard who knows where as gospel. I don't know where listening to your body falls on the moronic scale, but I think the two things are pretty close.

That goes for the do nothing advice, the do somethings advice, and everything in between. People need to gather reliable information and make informed decisions. This forum is often not the place for reliable information-gathering.

[Anonymous]

I recommend moderation during pregnancy with a view to drinking as much as possible when they are out. God knows you sometimes need it.

[Anonymous]

I was on bedrest for preterm labor with my second. The bedrest alone did a lot to keep the contractions at bay. However, when home uterine monitoring showed too many contractions in an hour, I was told by my OB to drink half a glass of wine and retest. I only needed to take the stronger drugs if still having contractions. But the wine always worked!

Probably had the equivalent of one glass a week for my last trimester. DS is perfectly normal, not that anecdotal evidence counts for anything.

[Anonymous]

I was at a wedding in Australia towards the end of my second trimester and everyone was laughing at how uptight Americans are about the whole thing. Down there they all continue to drink IN MODERATION (like all the PP's----one glass occasionally). And this was coming from two OB's...one from Australia and one from Europe. So I guess my point is that I think an occasional glass here or there after the first trimester is fine and goodness knows a lot of international folks agree!

[Anonymous]

I drank a couple of glasses in my first pregnancy but since then I have heard and read research articles saying it is indeed bad for the baby so this time around I am not having a drop. I guess no one would like to take the risk and why not wait till right after birth (and have champagne!!).
When I went in for my nucal fold scan the baby wasn't moving enough so the doc advised me to have a coffee so it would wake baby up. So I did and indeed within half a minute the baby was kicking around, proving that everything you eat or drink will immediately affect the baby.

Make your own mind up, you are the only one responsible for your acts .. no one else. Good luck!

[[e-mail]]

To the posters labelling women who don't drink during pregnancy as militants, that hardly seems fair, no one is referring to you all as child abusers. Alcohol is known to cross the placenta, no one knows in what amounts it can cause harm - why take the risk? There's enough we don't know about - this one is a no brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was at a wedding in Australia towards the end of my second trimester and everyone was laughing at how uptight Americans are about the whole thing. Down there they all continue to drink IN MODERATION (like all the PP's----one glass occasionally). And this was coming from two OB's...one from Australia and one from Europe. So I guess my point is that I think an occasional glass here or there after the first trimester is fine and goodness knows a lot of international folks agree!

Your point is that you think an occasional glass of wine is fine is based on being laughed at by Australians at a wedding?

[Anonymous]

No, my point was that two OB's from different countries told me that they had not seen any research indicating an occasional alcoholic drink posed any harm to the fetus. In their respective countries they cautioned women against "heavy drinking" but ok'd occasional indulging. My point about the wedding was that Americans have the most rigid standards in terms of this and people were poking fun. I'm all for not drinking during pregnancy but found it refreshing to be amongst folks who weren't so critical of others regarding that decision. Ultimately it's each woman's choice and while it's not something I choose to do I don't like to criticize those who have made a different and equally informed choice.

[Anonymous]

In France women drink red wine through out their pregnancies and the British drink Guiness. It is common in Europe and Australia for women to drink more while pregnant. We're not talking downing bottles of vodka.

[Anonymous]

My doctor said the reason why we're told not to drink during pregnancy (and why they scare us with all sorts of no-no's) is because most people can't moderate. Half a glass here and there is fine, but tell someone who cannot stop themselves and they'll have a whole bottle in one sitting.

This is my first child and while my baby's health is of utmost importance to me, I do have to question why some things are off-limits. British women drink Guinness during pregnancy. French women eat soft cheese during pregnancy. Japanese women eat sushi during pregnancy. Do you consider any of those countries third world - no! And while I don't have evidence to back this up, I don’t believe they have a higher rate of miscarriages or health deficiencies because they do this.

Moderation is key. If you can’t moderate, or don’t want to, don’t. But don’t preach to others who can and do.

[Anonymous]

The previous poster had the most helpful post--moderation is key, something many people don't have. I totally agree with your thought process.

[Anonymous]

I've also read that many US doctors don't want to give the green light for drinking in any form for fear of a lawsuit.

On one hand I have a friend whose mom smoked and drank with both of her children. One grew up to be an RN and lawyer while the other is an extremely successful designer. On the other hand, I know a woman who drank heavily and her boy has fetal alcohol syndrome.

We have to be prepared for the potential consequences of our actions.

[Anonymous]

I think you have to ask yourself if something was wrong with your baby would you blame drinking the wine, even if it did not have any thing to do with it. You would always wonder, and that would be hard to live with, to me. The problem with drinking while pregnant is they do not know why some babies are affected with just a little and some have no problem when mom drank a lot. Alcohal syndrom in unpredicable. I would take a sip of my husbands wine in the 3rd trimester, that was it. It just scared me too much, but I have a picture of my mom pregnant with me with a drink in one hand and cig in the other, she was very pregnant, maybe 8 or more months and I would like to think I am fine. . Really I think it is the guilt factor.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if eating peanut butter while I was pregnant is the reason my son has food allergies... thank god I didn't drink... every sneeze would have been my fault. I am the kind of person that feels incredible guilt, sometimes for no reason. I didn't drink, because I am a little nutty, but wouldn't want someone else who made a different decision to feel guilty about it. And for the person who is drinking diet sodas... I actually heard that regular sodas are better than the diet if you wanted to weigh it. I think something about the artificial sweetners taking long to get through the system - or something along those lines. Of course this was 2 years ago and now there is more info about caffeine and miscarriages - so I am not sure.