What Happens If You Drink While Pregnant: Risks and Consequences for Fetal Development

Specifically, the researchers focused on how early alcohol exposure during pregnancy influenced the epigenome of the hippocampus among offspring – the brain region that plays a crucial role in memory and learning. If you’re pregnant and alcohol-dependent, talk with your doctor and get recommendations on where to receive treatment. This will help you plan how to handle urges to drink and learn how to say no.

Let’s unpack this topic step by step, in a way that’s easy to understand—like a fun story your younger self would enjoy. Some doctors recommend that you completely avoid alcohol when you’re expecting; others say that occasional light drinking is unlikely to harm your baby. Light drinking can raise the risk of miscarriage in the first trimester by as much as 30 percent and a second trimester miscarriage by as much as 70 percent, according to a Danish study of more than 90,000 pregnancies. But with slightly more than half of all pregnancies in the U.S. being unintended, many women are simply unaware that they’re pregnant for a few weeks and continue drinking alcohol as they normally would.

Preventable Cause of Developmental Disabilities

But, for those who feel like all-or-nothing is impossible, taking small steps to reduce harm may be a way to begin. For example, individuals could start by progressively reducing the number of drinks each day. If you used any amount of alcohol while you were pregnant, talk with your child’s healthcare provider as soon as possible and share your concerns.

Findings could aid diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome in humans

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommends complete abstinence. This may include doctors, therapists, teachers, and family members. It can kill brain cells and change how they grow and connect. Marjorie Greenfield, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; author, The Working Woman’s Pregnancy Book. 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 small glass of merlot or to sip a little champagne on New Year’s Eve, the advice you receive may be confusing.

Counseling and Support for Pregnant Persons

• No amount of alcohol is considered safe during pregnancy.
• Take your daily prenatal vitamin, maintain a healthy diet, avoid undercooked meats and raw or high-mercury fish, and keep your prenatal appointments — these are all wonderful things you can do to promote your baby’s health.
• Babies born prematurely may face lifelong health challenges, making avoiding alcohol entirely during pregnancy ideal.
• Women who drank before knowing they were pregnant should talk to their doctor.
• Pregnancy is an exciting journey, but sometimes, it can come as a surprise!

I followed that advice,” says Alison, mom to a two- and three-year-old. Alcohol and pregnancy are an incompatible combination, as alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to severe and irreversible harm to the developing baby, so it’s safest to avoid it completely. Every effort made to avoid alcohol is an investment in the lifelong health and well-being of both mother and baby. The term non-alcoholic can be misleading in drinks such as wine and beer. These drinks do contain small amounts of alcohol that are typically half-a-percent or so while the regular alcoholic drinks contain more than 5- 8% alcohol (5).

Alcohol use at any stage of pregnancy can lead to a range of consequences falling under the umbrella of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). These consequences, ranging from mild to very severe, include birth defects, growth retardation during pregnancy and emotional and behavioural problems related to brain development. The guidelines for drinking alcohol while pregnant are clear—but in the real world, things can seem a bit muddled. Opinions on drinking while pregnant can differ, and some moms-to-be are are choosing to enjoy an occasional glass of wine during their pregnancy. “When I was pregnant, my OB told me a small glass of wine to help me relax one or two times a week was better on the baby than a ton of stress.

There is no known safe drug addiction limit when it comes to alcohol consumption during pregnancy (or whether that limit would be different in different women). Alcohol enters both your bloodstream and your baby’s bloodstream at the same concentration, where it can interfere with the development of critical organs, structures and systems. Unfortunately, drinking any alcohol while you’re pregnant is not considered safe. Whatever the risks, many moms-to-be are choosing not to totally give up alcohol. A recent CDC study found that about one in eight pregnant women in the U.S. report drinking at least one alcoholic beverage in the past month.

How To Avoid Drinking in Early Pregnancy

• “The only way to prevent the teratogenic effects of alcohol in unborn children is to avoid drinking alcohol, but we must find other safeguards for women who don’t yet know they’re pregnant,” said McGraw.
• Raising awareness can lead to better support and prevention efforts.
• A couple of drinks a couple of times very early in pregnancy, when you didn’t even know you were pregnant, are unlikely to cause serious harm.
• Embryonic stem cells that change as a result of the mother’s alcohol consumption early in pregnancy could even impact adult tissue later on.
• These effects can last a lifetime and impact the child’s ability to function in school, work, and social settings.
• “When I was pregnant, my OB told me a small glass of wine to help me relax one or two times a week was better on the baby than a ton of stress.

Health professionals use these guidelines to educate patients about the risks of drinking while pregnant. They explain how alcohol can harm the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ developing fetus, especially its central nervous system. Moderate drinking, often defined as 1 drink per day for women, is not safe during pregnancy.

Many people drink alcohol in early pregnancy before knowing they’re expecting. Here’s what to know about the risks to you and your baby. For the many women that drank some alcohol before they realized they were pregnant, this and other studies should reassure them. 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. Other physical signs that go along with fetal alcohol syndrome include a small head, short nose, and problems with the way the heart or the joints are formed.