Drinking While Pregnant: Is Any Alcohol Safe During Pregnancy?
The times before, during and after pregnancy are all critical periods for maternal alcohol consumption awareness, reduction, and ideally abstinence. Knowing that fetal alcohol exposure is the most common nongenetic cause of cognitive impairment, it is critical to identify maternal alcohol consumption early as a primary target to prevent downstream FASD. Therefore, innovative research studies are vital to better understand the mechanism of alcohol on pregnancy to then target the development of therapeutic strategies to mitigate its adverse effects and improve maternal and fetal outcomes. Alcohol exposure during pregnancy results in impaired growth, stillbirth, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Fetal alcohol deficits are lifelong issues with no current treatment or established diagnostic or therapeutic tools to prevent and/or ameliorate some of these adverse outcomes.
What if I drank alcohol before I knew I was pregnant?
There’s no known safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy, and there’s no type of alcohol that is safe. Copyright 2024 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Read copyright and permissions information.This information is designed as an educational aid for the public.
The risks of light or moderate drinking while pregnant
Speak with your healthcare provider to determine how much water you need based on your age, general health, fitness level, and other factors. Drinking water is not a treatment for high blood pressure but it can help you sustain healthier blood pressure, whether you have hypertension or not. Drinking enough water on a daily basis and staying hydrated is an important way to manage your health and blood pressure. If you think you might have problems stopping drinking talk to your doctor or midwife as soon as possible. Drinking alcohol throughout pregnancy can also cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) - a serious, life-long condition that affects a child’s brain development, behaviour and growth.
What Are the Risks of Drinking While Pregnant?
- † Defined as having consumed at least one alcoholic drink in the past 30 days.
- For women who do not have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol and who want to have a drink on a special occasion, they shouldn’t fear being judged or have others make that decision for them.
- Drinking in pregnancy can lead to long-term harm to the baby, with the more you drink, the greater the risk.
- They performed tests on IQ, attention span, and executive functions such as planning, organization, and self-control.
If you are worried about how much you have been drinking in the early stages of pregnancy, talk to your GP or midwife. Avoiding alcohol completely keeps risks for the baby to a minimum. Ideally, you should assess your health before conceiving so you can start your pregnancy on the best foot possible.
- Executive functioning is a catchall term that describes the ability to perform activities such as planning, organizing, strategizing, remembering details, and managing time.
- Perhaps you went off birth control a few months ago to try for a baby, but weren’t expecting to get pregnant so soon.
- Some have characteristic facial features like a thin upper lip and small eye openings, or the small vertical groove between the upper lip and the nose may be flattened.
- Third, data are self-reported and subject to misclassification related to recall and social desirability biases.
Fetal alcohol syndrome
Some women may have been reassured by a study that was published in October 2010 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. If you’re pregnant and wondering if it’s OK to indulge in the occasional alcohol during pregnancy small glass of merlot or to sip a little champagne on New Year’s Eve, the advice you receive may be confusing. Marilyn Pierce-Bulger, owner and medical manager of FASDx Services, LLC, Anchorage, Alaska.
Drinking while pregnant: What we know and what we don’t
- Dehydration occurs when the body loses too much water that it needs to function normally.
- When you drink, alcohol passes from your blood through the placenta to your baby and can seriously affect its development.
- That is anywhere from one-half to one-fifth of the recommended daily intake, depending on your age and sex.
- Your baby does not have a fully developed liver and cannot process alcohol.
- Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is one of the most complex disorders under the FASD umbrella and can result in serious issues with the central nervous system, developmental problems, and specific physical characteristics.