The shortest, most honest answer I can give you is: absolutely not. You should be drinking zero alcohol during pregnancy.
If you haven’t dropped alcohol while trying to conceive, you should at least do it as soon as you find out you’re pregnant. Despite your mom, aunt, or neighbor telling you it’s okay to have a glass of wine or bottle of beer every once in a while, it’s simply not true. My mom is the first to claim drinking while pregnant is totally fine after the first trimester, which really shocks me.
The truth is, it could be safe – or it could cause cognitive issues in your child. So the big questions is:
Is the risk worth that one glass of wine?
Zero is the Only Safe Amount of Alcohol During Pregnancy.
Mostly because the studies done have been wildly inconclusive in terms of safe amounts of alcohol in pregnancy. Or to be more precise – they were unable to find a safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy.
I’ll be the first to admit I am a huge beer lover. And while I didn’t completely quit when we started trying (mostly so no one would suspect anything), the moment I saw that vague second line, I was done with alcohol. We are blessed enough to live in times where non-alcoholic beers are available (wines, too!), and that’s the only thing I allow myself from time to time.
And sure, your aunt may have had a couple glasses of wine, and her kid turned out completely fine. But the issue is, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders make up a huge continuum, which means two things:
- It goes from kids with visible deformities to those who simply fail at school due to cognitive issues
- It’s often not diagnosed until the kid actually starts falling behind, which could be in high school.
So her kid turning out fine could be true, or it could mean they got off easy.
And I’m not saying all kids whose moms occasionally have alcohol during pregnancy will have a mental deficiency. All I’m saying is: is that glass of wine really worth the risk?
FAQ
Is it OK to have a glass of wine while pregnant?
The most honest answer I can give you is – we simply don’t know. There is no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy, so your baby may be fine after 1 glass of wine, or they may not be. If you’re craving that glass, I would recommend you ether skip it, or go for the non-alcoholic variety.
How much alcohol is safe in pregnancy?
There is no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy.
Is occasional alcohol OK in pregnancy?
While many will tell you an occasional glass of beer or wine is okay, the fact remains that there is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy. Therefore, an occasional drink may not harm your baby – but it may end up harming them, too.
At what stage of pregnancy does alcohol affect the baby?
Alcohol affects babies at all stages of pregnancy. The only difference is to what extent and in what way. If you were drinking in early pregnancy without knowing, the most likely harmful outcome would have been a miscarriage. If that didn’t happen and you’re out of the first trimester, chances are your baby will be fine – provided you’ve stopped drinking. In later stages of pregnancy, alcohol may cause a lower birth weight, preterm labor, and cognitive issues that may not appear until later in life.
