Drinking in Pregnancy

[Cumberland]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/dinin ... 0&emc=eta1

I think our society is way too black and white. There is a gray area in here somewhere. I was an occasional wine drinking, any time feta eating, give me a big deli sub kind of pregnant girl.

[pstone]

Yeah, I am on the side of 'if you can't wait 9months.....'

Though I think holding a beer bottle filled with juice or water is freaking funny. Though I could never get wifey to do it.

[Cumberland]

I think a research study can be produced tha shows alcohol consumption in pregnancy is okay, while other studies can be produced that show it is severely harmful. I found the NYTimes article interesting in that in other countries pregnant women are discouraged from eating raw vegetables but having a glass of wine is accepted. I really believe common sense and moderation is the key here.

[PrincessFiona]

There may be a bit of knee-jerk cautiousness going on, but I always opted to err on the side of being one of those knee-jerkers....(except of course with this last pregnancy...but even then, I refused all drugs that weren't necessary, like ativan and certain pain meds)

A drink may not have hurt, but....had something been wrong with one of my children after I had had a few drinks....I would have blamed myself forever.

It's just 9 months...why not leave it just in case...after all...there are no certainties and you don't want your fetus to be the guinea pig...

When someone with a heavy developmental biology background tells me that even one drink timed just right can cause serious problems I listen.

Sure, but where does this person get their evidence? Even the article clearly states that there isn't any research to support that claim.

[MissCrabette]

I think you'd find this interesting: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Health ... 39516.html

I personally wouldn't drink during pregnancy just to be on the safe side but I can totally see how Americans in particularly are blowing this out of proportion. It's probably because we don't seem to understand the meaning of the word "moderation" so someone figured it would be easier to ban alcohol altogether during pregnancy.

I am particularly inclined to not trust all these studies because they are all based on self reporting of alcohol consumption and people either tend to lie or they honestly don't understand how much a drink really is. So no wonder kids have lower IQs when the mother has 3 or 4 drinks a day and reports them as one because she doesn't know any better. Or would you really trust a heavy drinker to admit to drinking heavily? It's like that statistic that the majority of people think they are of above average looks. How's that possible? Because we like to view ourselves in a positive light.

[Vanquisher]

My girlfriend suggested to me once that if she were to get pregnant, she would not stop drinking and would do so in moderation like this suggestion as they do in other parts of the world.

My gut response to this is, if you can't give up a glass of wine for nine months, how are you going to manage all the other sacrifices of motherhood? Now, this friend of mine is somewhat selfish, and hasn't opted to have children yet. I hope she doesn't based on other conversations that we have had.

Even if the chance is low, there is that chance. You know, chances are low that my children will be abducted by a stranger, but I still teach them about that. Chances are low that our house will catch on fire, but I still teach them what to do. It is insurance policies of information that you take throughout your life, and as a mother you have to make more sacrifices.

Conflicting evidence or not. I don't need alcohol THAT bad for nine months. If I did, I would wonder if I didn't have other issues.

Zofran on the other hand, THAT, I NEEDED!

[Cumberland]

I think there is too much hysteria associated with alcohol consumption in pregnancy. Throughout both my pregnancies I avoided all artificial sweetners and caffiene, never took any medication, and did not have chemicals in my home- those are more unresearched and scary than an occasional class of wine or piece of brie. Caffiene is a known stimulant. Some artificial sweetners cause cancer in rats. For thousands of years women have been eating soft cheeses and drinking wine. My husband and I are both proof that you can have a drink in moderation in pregnancy- our mothers did- and we are both ok. Same with our cousins, their cousins, etc.

If something happened to one of my babies I would be more likely to equate it to the fact that our environment is completely polluted and causing genetic mutations and birth defects than to the fact that I had a glass of wine once or twice.

[PrincessFiona]

From the March of Dimes:



Researchers are taking a closer look at the more subtle effects of moderate and light drinking during pregnancy. A 2001 study by researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit found that 6- and 7-year-old children of mothers who had as little as one drink a week during pregnancy were more likely than children of non-drinkers to have behavior problems, such as aggressive and delinquent behaviors. These researchers found that children whose mothers drank any alcohol during pregnancy were more than three times as likely as unexposed children to demonstrate delinquent behaviors.



and from other sources....

"We don't really know what a safe level of alcohol consumption is for a pregnant woman — and it's probably different for every woman because no one metabolizes alcohol in the same way," says Pam Phipps, research manager of the fetal alcohol and drug unit in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. "Since it's impossible to identify a safe dose, we advise abstinence."

surgeon general:



D. Birth Defects

Neurological/Cognitive Effects:

It is the behavioral teratogenic effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (i.e., Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder, or ARND -- the low end of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders continuum) that appear to be more sensitive on a dose response basis than the physical teratogenic effects of alcohol, and therefore, are more important in the context of assessing lower dose injury from alcohol. A study examining exposure during the first trimester to an average daily volume of one drink found there were significant effects in verbal learning and memory as measured by the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (Richardson et al., 2002).

Several other studies have also found deficits in neurodevelopmental parameters at levels averaging 1 to 2 drinks per day. Sampson et al. (1994) found that neurobehavioral functioning was affected from birth through age 14 particularly in the areas of attention, speed of information processing, and learning problems, especially in arithmetic. Goldschmidt et al. (1996) found that children whose mothers consumed seven or more drinks per week during pregnancy had poorer performance in reading and spelling at 7 years of age.


The majority of animal studies assessed the effects of moderate alcohol exposure on brain growth, structure, and function. Bonthius and West (1990) demonstrated that a smaller absolute amount of ethanol (4.5 g/kg body wt) administered over a short period of time induced a high blood alcohol concentration (BAC) (mean 362 mg/dl), simulating heavy episodic exposure, whereas a higher daily dose (6.6 g/kg) administered continuously resulted in a low BAC (mean 39 mg/dl). Unlike the high BAC condition, low BACs did not induce microcephaly or cell loss in hippocampus and cerebellum. Another area of active investigation is the impact of moderate alcohol exposure on learning and memory tasks. Recently, Savage et al. (2002) determined that the threshold for maternal BAC that elicits subtle, yet significant learning deficits in adult offspring was 30 mg/dl. This is roughly equivalent to 2 to 3 drinks/day for humans.


There is no question about the effects of excessive consumption: heavy drinking during pregnancy can produce a range of behavioral and psychosocial problems, malformations, and mental retardation in the offspring (Kesmodel et al., 2002; Meister et al., 2000; NIAAA, 1992). The question of whether there is a safe level of drinking during pregnancy still remains to be established, with studies indicating that low-to-moderate drinking during pregnancy does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of fetal physical malformations, but may have behavioral or neurocognitive consequences. There is some evidence for a dose-response association, but so far there is not an established threshold level below which consumption is not teratogenic. In the absence of definitive information on low- or moderate-level drinking, in 1981 the Surgeon General recommended that women maintain abstinence during pregnancy.

[PrincessFiona]

So the better question now is:


What is a safe dose of alcohol during pregnancy and how do we determine that dose for each individual considering their individual metabolism of alcohol?

[DCJenn]

Most (ok all) of my friend and/or family who have been pregnant ovre the last ten years have had an occasional glass or wine or champagne. My friend celebrated Valentine's Day in Paris and she wasn't going to be in Paris without at least an inch of red wine.

While there she got into a discussion with two other women- one was European and the other I don't remember. She said that the French woman told her that they were told to avoid red meat. The other woman was told to avoid something else that we think is ok (can't remember now)

So, I think personal and cultural comfort levels have some play here too.

That said, all you have to do to see the impact of alcohol on fetuses is go to any orphanage in Russia. Textbook FAS and a ton of kids end up with FAE, too.

If it were me, I'd probably have a sip on NYEve kid of thing. This is one of those slippery slopes that we have to be very careful about- we all know what is too much. But what is almost too much. or maybe too much. or OK?

(and once again, I'm oh so very glad I didn't need to go down this road. My babyshower was definitely a wine celebration- and actually every said mine was the most fun- duh- no one was pregnant and hugely uncomfortable and everyone who wanted to could partake!)

[SuzySunshine]

I was going to stay out of this but...my DH would KILL me if I had a drink in the first 16 weeks and I can't say that I blame him. Think of what too many drinks does to an adult sized brain (fully developed), now think of what even 1/8 of that alcohol would do to a developing brain...

Of course there aren't any perfect studies on pregnant women that drink, just like there aren't perfect studies on most drug effects on pregnant women - how in the world are you going to test things on pregnant women and therefore their defenseless babies, the IRB will never approve it, and they shouldn't.

Now with all that said I have a few girlfriends who have had no more than 1 drink/night/week when they were 8+ months along. I don't see an issue with that, though I will be having NO alchohol from the point of conception (or possible) to birth - IMO it's just not worth it.

[Stella]

Those studies all seem to define "moderation" as a drink a day. That seems like a lot while pregnant. What if you have one a week, one a month, or just one during your whole nine months?? I honestly can't imagine going nine months without a taste of red wine or a piece of soft cheese. I could, yes, but would a breakdown at 6 months pregnant with brie and crackers and a glass of Cabernet really cause my child to act out at 7?? Doubt it.

SO is tee total as am I to the most part (occasional glass of champagne at christmas or maybe a celebration but generaly driving so don't take anything) and 1. I would never drink in pregnancy 2. Alcohol is the last I want!

[spotty_dog]

Your gut produces 5 gr of alcohol daily. That's almost a drink worth. That's where the gray area comes in for me. Compared to that my 2nd trimester tasting sips didn't bother me, nor did the 1/2 glass I had on a couple of occasions in the 3rd tri.

7 drinks a week for 40 weeks is hardly a fair comparison.