Drinking beer while pregnant??

[purplecupcake]

My best friend is an OB and he always tells me that there is a fundamental misquote: It is not so much that no amount is safe; there has been no study ever that has indicated that one drink a day will hurt your baby - though there are some that will use fancy lingo or uncertain findings to try. (It is refreshing to hear my friend, a MAN, talk about how much this topic is twisted and creates an unnecessary and damaging culture of fear and judgment among pregnant women). In fact, there was a study done in the last year that reported women who drink moderately during pregnancy have children with higher IQs and healthier hearts than women who drink excessively or do not drink at all. (I just tried to find the study, but I did not bookmark it. My OB BF sent it to me so I will ask him for it again and see if he has it handy.)
The thing is that in the studies that HAVE been conducted, there have been a lot of variables (e.g. often the mother's studied had issues beyond their alcohol consumption, not to mention questionable activities while drinking.) Of course, if there have been issues linked to any consumption, the safest thing to do is not to drink any booze at all....or aspartame, or soft-cheese, or runny eggs, or cold-cuts, or raw anything. Just basically wrap yourself in a bubble, right? I jest, but it is such a slippery slope when we start talking about these things, which doesn't mean they shouldn't be talked about - simply that we should all be open and empathetic.

All this said, I DO NOT believe in using alcohol to medicate anything, from a urine infection to a bad day at the office. Lots of water and fresh, organic eating should help more than any booze. Oh, and your doctor prescribed meds.
I know this is a polarized topic, and I am not trying to get any backs up; I just wanted to weigh in with a harmless and well-intentioned opinion.

PS. White tea is fabulous with helping with inflammation and infection!

Not sure if it was the same study, but women that drink moderately during pregnancy also tend to have children with fewer behavioral problems.

The problem with these studies is it's all done on self-reporting of the mother. Women who drink a lot are more likely to say they only drink "moderately", which can lead to it looking like small amounts of alcohol caused issues when really that mom was an alcoholic and downplayed her consumption.

 

[JoHio]

My best friend is an OB and he always tells me that there is a fundamental misquote: It is not so much that no amount is safe; there has been no study ever that has indicated that one drink a day will hurt your baby - though there are some that will use fancy lingo or uncertain findings to try. (It is refreshing to hear my friend, a MAN, talk about how much this topic is twisted and creates an unnecessary and damaging culture of fear and judgment among pregnant women). In fact, there was a study done in the last year that reported women who drink moderately during pregnancy have children with higher IQs and healthier hearts than women who drink excessively or do not drink at all. (I just tried to find the study, but I did not bookmark it. My OB BF sent it to me so I will ask him for it again and see if he has it handy.)
The thing is that in the studies that HAVE been conducted, there have been a lot of variables (e.g. often the mother's studied had issues beyond their alcohol consumption, not to mention questionable activities while drinking.) Of course, if there have been issues linked to any consumption, the safest thing to do is not to drink any booze at all....or aspartame, or soft-cheese, or runny eggs, or cold-cuts, or raw anything. Just basically wrap yourself in a bubble, right? I jest, but it is such a slippery slope when we start talking about these things, which doesn't mean they shouldn't be talked about - simply that we should all be open and empathetic.

All this said, I DO NOT believe in using alcohol to medicate anything, from a urine infection to a bad day at the office. Lots of water and fresh, organic eating should help more than any booze. Oh, and your doctor prescribed meds.
I know this is a polarized topic, and I am not trying to get any backs up; I just wanted to weigh in with a harmless and well-intentioned opinion.

PS. White tea is fabulous with helping with inflammation and infection!

Not sure if it was the same study, but women that drink moderately during pregnancy also tend to have children with fewer behavioral problems.

The problem with these studies is it's all done on self-reporting of the mother. Women who drink a lot are more likely to say they only drink "moderately", which can lead to it looking like small amounts of alcohol caused issues when really that mom was an alcoholic and downplayed her consumption.

It was the same study, yes! AND PRECISELY - the self-reporting system is not exactly iron-clad in so far as a consistent rating system. Even for me, my idea of drinking "moderately" at 33 (my current age) is quite different from drinking "moderately" at 23. (The idea of a glass of wine is lovely; in practice, it would probably put me to sleep these days! That may have less to do with age and more to do with having 2 young children though )

 

[CastawayBride]

I don't know who would ever say drink alcohol to a pregnant woman!

It is such a taboo thing I feel I can abstain for 10 months but that is just me. I work with children that have special needs, including some with FAS, and although the parent reports they were not heavy drinkers (some were though) I still can't wrap my mind around the risk.

 

[Gabrielle22]

There's has just no been enough evidence proving that drinking in moderation is safe. Therefore, it's not worth the risk to me. And to be honest I hope there is never any evidence that rules it out as safe, simply because, a lot of people don't know moderation! If they say 1 beer/day is fine, there will be people drinking 2-3 beers/days and saying "if 1 beer is fine, 2-3 must be fine also".
I know quite a few people that drank in moderation throughout their pregnancy, and their babies are fine. BUT, everyone and every pregnancy is different. I doubt that 1 beer, more so, every other day, instead of every day, would hurt anything, especially if you spaced that beer out over a few hours period of time. But I prefer not to chance it. Same with drinking while breast feeding. You can do it in moderation, but there's always that WHAT IF, you get too much and that alcohol is passed onto the baby. Of course you could always use stored breast milk until you feel the alcohol has left your system. But in pregnancy, you don't know what's going on. Lol everyone matabalizes alcohol at different rates, you don't know if your body has alreay passed it, or if it is being passed onto the placenta, and what threat it may be posing to the baby. Which is just...not worth the risk. Just like eating raw eggs, or rare steak, or shushi...there's a reason why most OBs will tell you not to eat it. Moderation if probably fine, but like I said, a lot don't know moderation, so it's better to just eliminate it all together. I personally would prefer to live in a bubble for a short 9 months than do something that could harm my baby....I would never forgive myself.
I respect all of your opinions!!!! and I had no idea about the cranberry juice causing contractions!! I will be looking into that.

 

[JoHio]

There's has just no been enough evidence proving that drinking in moderation is safe. Therefore, it's not worth the risk to me. And to be honest I hope there is never any evidence that rules it out as safe, simply because, a lot of people don't know moderation! If they say 1 beer/day is fine, there will be people drinking 2-3 beers/days and saying "if 1 beer is fine, 2-3 must be fine also".
I know quite a few people that drank in moderation throughout their pregnancy, and their babies are fine. BUT, everyone and every pregnancy is different. I doubt that 1 beer, more so, every other day, instead of every day, would hurt anything, especially if you spaced that beer out over a few hours period of time. But I prefer not to chance it. Same with drinking while breast feeding. You can do it in moderation, but there's always that WHAT IF, you get too much and that alcohol is passed onto the baby. Of course you could always use stored breast milk until you feel the alcohol has left your system. But in pregnancy, you don't know what's going on. Lol everyone matabalizes alcohol at different rates, you don't know if your body has alreay passed it, or if it is being passed onto the placenta, and what threat it may be posing to the baby. Which is just...not worth the risk. Just like eating raw eggs, or rare steak, or shushi...there's a reason why most OBs will tell you not to eat it. Moderation if probably fine, but like I said, a lot don't know moderation, so it's better to just eliminate it all together. I personally would prefer to live in a bubble for a short 9 months than do something that could harm my baby....I would never forgive myself.
I respect all of your opinions!!!! and I had no idea about the cranberry juice causing contractions!! I will be looking into that.

Yep, exactly what purplecupcake and I were saying: moderation may be fine, but moderation is a subjective term so it is a touchy subject.

 

[CastawayBride]

There's has just no been enough evidence proving that drinking in moderation is safe. Therefore, it's not worth the risk to me. And to be honest I hope there is never any evidence that rules it out as safe, simply because, a lot of people don't know moderation! If they say 1 beer/day is fine, there will be people drinking 2-3 beers/days and saying "if 1 beer is fine, 2-3 must be fine also".
I know quite a few people that drank in moderation throughout their pregnancy, and their babies are fine. BUT, everyone and every pregnancy is different. I doubt that 1 beer, more so, every other day, instead of every day, would hurt anything, especially if you spaced that beer out over a few hours period of time. But I prefer not to chance it. Same with drinking while breast feeding. You can do it in moderation, but there's always that WHAT IF, you get too much and that alcohol is passed onto the baby. Of course you could always use stored breast milk until you feel the alcohol has left your system. But in pregnancy, you don't know what's going on. Lol everyone matabalizes alcohol at different rates, you don't know if your body has alreay passed it, or if it is being passed onto the placenta, and what threat it may be posing to the baby. Which is just...not worth the risk. Just like eating raw eggs, or rare steak, or shushi...there's a reason why most OBs will tell you not to eat it. Moderation if probably fine, but like I said, a lot don't know moderation, so it's better to just eliminate it all together. I personally would prefer to live in a bubble for a short 9 months than do something that could harm my baby....I would never forgive myself.
I respect all of your opinions!!!! and I had no idea about the cranberry juice causing contractions!! I will be looking into that.

Yep, exactly what purplecupcake and I were saying: moderation may be fine, but moderation is a subjective term so it is a touchy subject.

Was this one study they says moderation was ok? I am just thinking there is not enough research and quite a leap of faith...but again I am sensitive to it as I have seen children affected by it!

 

[3Minions]

I don't know where in the world you are, but there's something available at the health food stores in Canada called 'uratonic tea'. https://www.nationalnutrition.ca/detail.aspx?ID=6329

I use it when I feel a uti coming on and during because I can never find pure cranberry juice either. It's good stuff! There's nothing on the box that says not to use it during pregnancy, but you might want to double check that if you can find it.

 

[purplecupcake]

There's has just no been enough evidence proving that drinking in moderation is safe. Therefore, it's not worth the risk to me. And to be honest I hope there is never any evidence that rules it out as safe, simply because, a lot of people don't know moderation! If they say 1 beer/day is fine, there will be people drinking 2-3 beers/days and saying "if 1 beer is fine, 2-3 must be fine also".
I know quite a few people that drank in moderation throughout their pregnancy, and their babies are fine. BUT, everyone and every pregnancy is different. I doubt that 1 beer, more so, every other day, instead of every day, would hurt anything, especially if you spaced that beer out over a few hours period of time. But I prefer not to chance it. Same with drinking while breast feeding. You can do it in moderation, but there's always that WHAT IF, you get too much and that alcohol is passed onto the baby. Of course you could always use stored breast milk until you feel the alcohol has left your system. But in pregnancy, you don't know what's going on. Lol everyone matabalizes alcohol at different rates, you don't know if your body has alreay passed it, or if it is being passed onto the placenta, and what threat it may be posing to the baby. Which is just...not worth the risk. Just like eating raw eggs, or rare steak, or shushi...there's a reason why most OBs will tell you not to eat it. Moderation if probably fine, but like I said, a lot don't know moderation, so it's better to just eliminate it all together. I personally would prefer to live in a bubble for a short 9 months than do something that could harm my baby....I would never forgive myself.
I respect all of your opinions!!!! and I had no idea about the cranberry juice causing contractions!! I will be looking into that.

Yep, exactly what purplecupcake and I were saying: moderation may be fine, but moderation is a subjective term so it is a touchy subject.

Was this one study they says moderation was ok? I am just thinking there is not enough research and quite a leap of faith...but again I am sensitive to it as I have seen children affected by it!

While there is not a lot of structured research, it's pretty easy to look around and see that many cultures have no alcohol restrictions and they don't necessarily have a higher population of people with disabilities. Even in American culture it used to not be taboo to drink and smoke during pregnancy, and the vast majority of babies were born healthy. Thousands of years ago, it was sometimes safer to drink wine because water had bacteria that made people sick, and obviously the human race prevailed despite people being forced to drink nothing but wine. The fact is - drinking MAY cause FAS and correlate to other developmental disabilities in some pregnancies, but that is not to say that there is a designated ratio of risk. IE no one can say "if you drink, you have an 80% (or 50, or 20, or whatever) risk of damaging your unborn baby". The numbers, even in alcoholics, seem to be very low.

 

[JoHio]

There's has just no been enough evidence proving that drinking in moderation is safe. Therefore, it's not worth the risk to me. And to be honest I hope there is never any evidence that rules it out as safe, simply because, a lot of people don't know moderation! If they say 1 beer/day is fine, there will be people drinking 2-3 beers/days and saying "if 1 beer is fine, 2-3 must be fine also".
I know quite a few people that drank in moderation throughout their pregnancy, and their babies are fine. BUT, everyone and every pregnancy is different. I doubt that 1 beer, more so, every other day, instead of every day, would hurt anything, especially if you spaced that beer out over a few hours period of time. But I prefer not to chance it. Same with drinking while breast feeding. You can do it in moderation, but there's always that WHAT IF, you get too much and that alcohol is passed onto the baby. Of course you could always use stored breast milk until you feel the alcohol has left your system. But in pregnancy, you don't know what's going on. Lol everyone matabalizes alcohol at different rates, you don't know if your body has alreay passed it, or if it is being passed onto the placenta, and what threat it may be posing to the baby. Which is just...not worth the risk. Just like eating raw eggs, or rare steak, or shushi...there's a reason why most OBs will tell you not to eat it. Moderation if probably fine, but like I said, a lot don't know moderation, so it's better to just eliminate it all together. I personally would prefer to live in a bubble for a short 9 months than do something that could harm my baby....I would never forgive myself.
I respect all of your opinions!!!! and I had no idea about the cranberry juice causing contractions!! I will be looking into that.

Yep, exactly what purplecupcake and I were saying: moderation may be fine, but moderation is a subjective term so it is a touchy subject.

Was this one study they says moderation was ok? I am just thinking there is not enough research and quite a leap of faith...but again I am sensitive to it as I have seen children affected by it!

There are actually several studies. My OB pal just said to read the latest medical journals if we REALLY want to see how brainwashed we are (i.e. that moderate drinking is totally unsafe.) I am by NO means saying bottoms up (either is my pal), I am just saying to question information and read the findings ourselves. The reports on the studies don't give the full picture; they are just snapshots of the full studies. The "no amount is safe" is not strictly true. As we have been mentioning, there are TONS of reasons abstaining during pregnancy is safest, but the reasons it is safest are not only (or even mainly) because moderate drinking is unsafe; there are all the things that come with drinking beyond moderation (dehydration, poor decision making, putting yourself in questionable situations, being prone to accidents, etc.) And of course, there is the subjectivity of 'moderation'. As purplecupcake pointed out, these studies are conducted on a reporting basis and the honour system is not always upheld. (When I worked with addicts, we usually just doubled the amount of whatever they said they used. Not saying women who drink during pregnancy are addicts; just pointing out that when we feel like we are being judged, we may fudge that facts. I did this last night when I told my hubby my kids ate the rest of the chocolate frozen yogurt...not only did I have some, but I had ALL of it!)

As I have said before in this thread though, if it is unsafe in any way, then I can totally see why to just say "don't do it." It is certainly the more simple, lowest risk approach. I just think that perhaps some women aren't give the full story on WHY it is best to abstain. It is not as simple as "drinking any amount of booze will brain damage your baby."

I too have worked with people (mainly adults) with FAS in street health clinics and am in no way trying to play down the absolute reality of this horrible (and totally avoidable) problem. I was simply trying to give a little scope to a generally myopic topic.

I'm so sorry for rambling. I realize this topic is not what the OP was asking about really. I'll stop now!

 

[messica]

There have been studies that have proven that cocaine is less of a risk to a developing fetus than alcohol is......so that means pregnant women can indulge in a little line every now and again?? Seriously, I will never understand the "we don't know how much alcohol exposure is safe so it's probably ok in moderation" argument.


Alcohol exposure in utero is *the only* way a child can end up with FAS.

Avoid alcohol 100% = avoid FAS 100%.


I have no idea who would ever find it worth it to toe that line.


Unofficially surveying women at random without taking into account a million other variables does not a credible study make. So saying there *may* be a correlation between alcohol exposure in utero and the intelligence and behavior of resulting children is extremely irresponsible at best, and extremely dangerous at worst.

 

[JoHio]

There have been studies that have proven that cocaine is less of a risk to a developing fetus than alcohol is......so that means pregnant women can indulge in a little line every now and again?? Seriously, I will never understand the "we don't know how much alcohol exposure is safe so it's probably ok in moderation" argument.


Alcohol exposure in utero is *the only* way a child can end up with FAS.

Avoid alcohol 100% = avoid FAS 100%.


I have no idea who would ever find it worth it to toe that line.


Unofficially surveying women at random without taking into account a million other variables does not a credible study make. So saying there *may* be a correlation between alcohol exposure in utero and the intelligence and behavior of resulting children is extremely irresponsible at best, and extremely dangerous at worst.

I don't think anyone was going this far in terms of judgment in their responses. Besides, there are many women here who have a tipple while pregnant and so, in the interest of letting each woman make her own decisions without judgment, maybe we should leave this very touchy end of the topic alone and stick to talking about bladder infections, yes? While part of me would love to have my OB friend who gave me all my info give a little more perspective, he has informed me that I should not be part of any "hen-pecking", and he is probably right. I'm certainly going to step out.

 

[messica]

maybe we should leave this very touchy end of the topic alone and stick to talking about bladder infections, yes? I'm certainly going to step out.

I was certainly prepared to do that, until I caught up with the thread and saw others making assertions that studies have shown children exposed to alcohol in utero were smarter and better behaved than those who aren't.

That's simply not true on any sort of scientific or credible level and was very worth clarifying as it's one of those things that can and does impact lives in a profoundly negative and often times permanent way.


At this point though I will bow out of the thread as well

 

[Gabrielle22]

I didn't find anything these people said to be offensive or judgmental. They got into the subject to give me a better idea on the whole matter. Which was what I was looking for. I would rather talk to other moms on the subject than to google it. To be honest, I didn't put much thought into it at all until I posted this question...but these ladies have given me a lot of insight!
Just because it something a lot of us won't do, doesn't mean others have to follow what we believe. And I'm not going to pitty you at all if you choose to kick a few back lol.