Poll: Drinking while pregnant?

[lettucethesallad]

Where I live it's a huge deal. If anyone visibly pregnant were to order alcohol at a pub or the like, they'd probably be denied service. The risk of damage to the baby is well known. I get flabbergasted anytime I hear of people who don't know of this.

And no, as much as I like a drink I'd quit cold turkey the second I knew I were pregnant. I wouldn't touch the stuff.

 

[Gigano]

Well, as a guy I'd probably go pretty heavy on the booze to deal with the highly unexpected trauma of pregnancy, and to destroy whatever inhuman spawn had infected me.

Were I a woman who wanted the child, I'd probably not swear off alcohol completely, though I'd of course keep it to small amounts in rare circumstances.

 

[Klepa]

If I were a woman, and pregnant, I probably wouldn't drink. This however is not a decision based on any kind of fact or science, but on the general consensus about drinking while pregnant.

I've read a few studies about alcohol not really being that dangerous to the child, and I believe those studies to be very true. But 23 years of living in a world where alcohol + pregnancy = disaster, will hard wire your brain to think it's true, even when you know it's not.

 

[TracyC]

Having a drink or two while pregnant is actually not a bad thing. It's the heavy or constant drinking that poses problems for FAS. And because we're so judgmental about it all, women tend not to be honest about their drinking to their doctors meaning no one can inform them when they're going over what they should be doing.

As for the first trimester, if you drink before you miss your period, don't worry. My midwife explained it's like an all-or-none thing - you'll either do enough damage that the egg can't implant and thus get your period or nothing will happen because the egg is self-contained at that point, getting no nutrients from mom.

Here's a good summary on the drinking and pregnancy research:
http://www.evolutionaryparenting.com/?p=274