Is there any objective source of information on light drinking during pregnancy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The last few posters prove my point about hysterical, emotional, and overwrought. Thanks to those who provided thoughtful and on-topic answers. There will always be a subset of the population who believes that anyone who ever has one drink has a problem -- I can't help those people. How do you know that I'm even pregnant at the moment? I was just asking for information, but this topic always brings out the extremists.

But why do some of these posters HAVE to drink? i mean clearly if you go 9 months and heck, treat yourself to a sip a few weeks before delivery or something like that sure - no big deal. No need to worry and no need to do massive research on the topic. But if you are desperately searching to find out the bare minimum you can get away with on a daily basis... that is something different!!

Many of us enjoy the flavor of alcohol and the ritual. I suppose you could ask the same question of the mom who really likes ham sandwiches and French cheese? But that would have the same moralistic frisson would it now? That is the whole point of OP's question - how to separate out the moralizing from the useful data. Nobody here wants to get trashed while pregnant, but many of use would enjoy say half an ice-cold beer with dinner on a hot day, or an ounce of nice red wine when somebody opens a good bottle.

Um, not sure OP is talking about just an ounce of wine here.

[Anonymous]

Op, please post back when your kid enters first grade to let us know how she is doing. If you are drinking wine every night, then I'd be really interested to hear how that turns out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, please post back when your kid enters first grade to let us know how she is doing. If you are drinking wine every night, then I'd be really interested to hear how that turns out.

Well, if she's drinking one glass/day, the science would seem to suggest it would turn out fine.

The two children of a friend, who happens to be a pediatric anesthesiologist and who had half a glass of wine several times/week through her pregnancy, seem to be doing just dandy well into their grade school years.

But hey, why read the peer-reviewed studies when it's so much more fun to moralize?

[Anonymous]

Do the women who drink pass judgment on pregnant ladies who eat Cheetos or sugary crap? The reality is that while alcohol in small amounts might not harm your baby in an obvious way, it certainly isn't healthy....just as eating crap isn't healthy for you or your baby. So, you are opting (for whatever reason which I will never understand) to drink something that isn't healthy.

For the record, I only drank water and milk during pregnancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the women who drink pass judgment on pregnant ladies who eat Cheetos or sugary crap? The reality is that while alcohol in small amounts might not harm your baby in an obvious way, it certainly isn't healthy....just as eating crap isn't healthy for you or your baby. So, you are opting (for whatever reason which I will never understand) to drink something that isn't healthy.

For the record, I only drank water and milk during pregnancy.

Congratulations. Was your kid a genius? Let us know when she enters first grade.

[Anonymous]

Well, my kids aren't autistic, don't have ADHD or ADD, don't have learning disabilities or behavior issues, etc. If they did, and had I drank, I would have wondered if anything I did could have been a contributing factor. That's all. You can go back to your wine now, pregnant ladies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, my kids aren't autistic, don't have ADHD or ADD, don't have learning disabilities or behavior issues, etc. If they did, and had I drank, I would have wondered if anything I did could have been a contributing factor. That's all. You can go back to your wine now, pregnant ladies.

So this seems to be a major argument against any drinking: if something bad happens to the kid I will feel guilty even if there is no evidence of causation? Sorry, this is not rational. I hope you can appreciate that. I mean, air pollution probably causes more developmental issues. But nobody would feel guilty for not moving to the country.

[Anonymous]

No, it actually is rational. Alcohol is a proven toxin in utero---unlike, say, cheetos or too much butter on your bagel. Though this will not change OP's mind---since apparently any organization designed to prevent FASD is inherently "biased"---those of you who are looking for an excuse to justify continuing drinking during pregnancy might want to look at the www.nofas.org pages regarding Emily Oster and also regarding medical evidence that light drinking can indeed result in negative effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, please post back when your kid enters first grade to let us know how she is doing. If you are drinking wine every night, then I'd be really interested to hear how that turns out.

Well, it's a he. And way to read into what I wrote. Where did I say every night? I didn't say anything about frequency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, it actually is rational. Alcohol is a proven toxin in utero---unlike, say, cheetos or too much butter on your bagel. Though this will not change OP's mind---since apparently any organization designed to prevent FASD is inherently "biased"---those of you who are looking for an excuse to justify continuing drinking during pregnancy might want to look at the www.nofas.org pages regarding Emily Oster and also regarding medical evidence that light drinking can indeed result in negative effective.

OP again. Yeah, like I said, I did look at those pages with no bias whatsoever against the organization going into it, and came away from them thinking that those people are too hyperemotional to even present themselves on their website in a rational way. They actually say that alcohol is more dangerous than heroin and cocaine. While it is possible that under certain circumstances that could be true, it reads as really hysterical and laughable on its face. I think that the folks as NOFAS are too emotionally invested in the issue -- as of course anyone would be who is personally affected by it every day -- to be writing the copy for their website or coming up with talking points. Besides which, the studies they cited don't support the extreme conclusions they draw from them. Enough with the fearmongering and moralizing. If there is evidence, let's discuss it like adults. They honestly sound like the anti-vaccine people. Which is ultimately going to undermine the good work they are trying to do.

[Anonymous]

Its a question of dealing with the lowest common denominator in society. For some women, if you tell them you can have 1-2 glasses a week, they will wake up passed out in a gutter on the reg. So in the society we live in, medical malpractice and all, doctors HAVE to tell every patient that no amount of alcohol is safe.

My doctor told me this, and also said Id have to drink a bottle of wine every day in my first trimester to even potentially do any damage to baby. Think about the Middle Ages, water was rancid and deadly and all anyone drank was fermented something or other. Yet we exist.

As a rational human being, I categorically know that having a wine and seltzer once every few weeks is doing zero harm to my baby. I like the taste of it, and it reminds me of some semblance of my previous non-babymaking life. There are SO many other things that a pregnant woman could be more concerned with; pesticides, hormones, fragrance, air pollution and listeria just to name a few. RELAX!

[Anonymous]

While we breathe trace amounts of those items, we aren't ingesting them.

Why the fuss over certain meds and other items we ingest that get passed through to the baby? What about smoking one joint? Harmful? Just one little puff...harmful?

I guess the difference here is that some folks aim to be their best super healthy self during pregnancy, while others simply don't. That's all.

[Anonymous]

PP here, That's actually not true, chemicals on every scale are making their way into the womb, and being traced through cord blood. http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/01/backpack.cord.blood/index.html

That's why during my pregnancy, while I will have the occasionally drink, I've done my best to switch to natural products. Your scalp in particular is one of the most absorbent parts of your body. And another tip, perfume (fragrance more specifically) is a known carcinogen which you are applying directly to your lymphnodes.

Obviously you can't avoid air pollution, but lets just keep things in perspective when it comes to actual danger to a fetus. Babies these days are literally stewing in a vat of chemicals in utero for nine months.

Everyone has their own priorities.

[Anonymous]

"We've measured hundreds and hundreds of toxic chemicals in the blood of babies that are still in the womb," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. "Flame retardants, the chemicals in consumer products like personal care products, makeup, shampoos. It's a very long list."

The EWG study found an average of 232 chemicals in the cord blood of 10 babies born late last year.

They are chemicals found in a wide array of common household products -- a list that is as long as it is familiar -- shampoos and conditioners, cosmetics, plastics, shower curtains, mattresses, electronics like computers and cell phones, among others.

"For 80 percent of the common chemicals in everyday use in this country we know almost nothing about whether or not they can damage the brains of children, the immune system, the reproductive system, and the other developing organs," said Dr. Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "It's really a terrible mess we've gotten ourselves into."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you only plan on having one drink during pregnancy, then why bother at all?

Obviously you are researching because you want to have more than one drink.

Oh absolutely. Because when I was pregnant, I was at a wedding where I was required to give a toast and then later, I was also at a Christmas party where I was served a glass of wine with dinner. Then much later, I went to dinner to celebrate my last day at work before maternity leave. Then a week after that, when I was stuck in early labor for 3 days, my midwife suggested that I have a glass of wine and try to relax.

So that was, from when I found out that I was pregnant until I was in labor, exactly 4 drinks. I did ask my midwife and also read some books to learn more about this guideline. Some of the guidelines that proscribe behavior are more serious than others, in my opinion. For example, I think we can all agree that use of heroin is likely more harmful to a fetus than a glass of wine with dinner. I wanted to know if this was one of those times. Not because I wanted to go out and do tequila shooters for hours. Not because I wanted to drink secret morning wine every day. But because for me personally, as well as a lot of other people in the world, drinking wine or beer or even scotch is not about "feeling a buzz". Everyone has rituals that they engage in and things that they do to mark a noteworthy occasion. For me, as well as a lot of other people in the world, a champagne toast or a toast with a glass of wine at dinner is one of those rituals. Could I complete the same ritual with water in the glass instead of wine? Of course. It's not essential. There's just nothing in the research that I did, or the medical professionals I consulted, that those 4 glasses of wine over 9 months were so dangerous that I should eliminate them.

FOUR GLASSES OF WINE, people. It's not a frat party.

And its NINE months....NOT a lifetime!

I'm the PP you're quoting. I don't disagree with you. You do whatever you want when you're pregnant. I was and am comfortable with my decision and do not believe that I (or the midwife and doctor who said it was okay) have a drinking problem because at several celebratory occasions, I drank 4 glasses of wine over the space of 9 months. If that is your threshold for what constitutes a drinking problem, I do not know how to reason with you.