Drinking when you don't know if you are pregnant?

Question

I have a 2 friends, both TTC. They both drink occasionally, taking the risk of being pregnant & consuming alchohol. They know the risk of drinking throughout their pregancy & will stop as soon as they are pregnant. BUT, what are the risk of drinking within the first couple weeks of pregnancy, while they still may not know if they are?

Answer 1

There are a few misconceptions that play into this situation.

The first misconception is that ALL alcohol is bad during the ENTIRE pregnancy. That's not true. It takes up to a week from the time of intercourse until the egg implants in the uterus. During that time, there's little damage to the BABY from the alcohol, though Mom's not doing herself many favors.

Next, in the first trimester there aren't as many risks from occasional alcohol consumption as there are in the last 2 trimesters. The baby's digestive track hasn't formed so there's no pancreas or liver to attempt to break down alcohol...so the mother's body is still handling that. That doesn't mean it's GOOD to drink at this point, but the risks from moderate alcohol consumption are less than we're sometimes led to believe.

The real reason women shouldn't drink during pregnancy is the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome. Babies exposed to alcohol during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters are at risk of becoming dependent on alcohol and suffering damage to the pancreas, liver and brain.

The sage advice for any woman TTC is to avoid drinking, smoking, fatty foods, etc, take pre-natal vitamins during the entire attempt to conceive to build up iron, folic acid and nutritional levels, eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies that are well washed, and get plenty of sleep. The sooner the bad habits are left behind, the easier it will be to carry good habits forward. The good done by these habits will outweigh the stupid things that happen along the way.

Answer 2

When you drink while pregnant and it affects your baby both physically and mentally, it's called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). That is the worse one. There is also Fetal Alcohol Affects (FAA), where the baby looks normal but you can't be sure if it has FAA usually until they get older and have behavioral problems or are having problems with school and learning.

If you drink while pregnant, the alcohol will affect what part of the baby is being developed at the time. During the first trimester it will be the organs and body. During the last trimester, it will be the brain.

Studies have shown that an occasional drink will not harm your baby, but it is up to you if it's worth the risk. Also a man's sperm can cause FAS and FAA, by having alcohol in his system when he impregnates a woman.

Answer 3

Many people say that it is OK to drink a little during pregnancy. I do not agree with this, but when I got pregnant with my daughter, now 2, I didn't know for the first 2 months. Since I really wasn't planning on getting pregnant so soon, I had been drinking. So far she has not had any negative health affects because of it, but I count myself very lucky and don't drink at all anymore. But, with that said, if they are actively trying to get pregnant, common since would say to go ahead and stop drinking now, just in case.

Answer 4

i became a wide potential drink junkie earlier i became pregnant, too. incredibly Monsters. i'd say the possibility became the most perfect contained in the first trimester (that you're patently out of by now, being 5 months pregnant). the possibility is that potential beverages can strengthen the babys heartrate to being too severe and reason a miscarriage. At this aspect, purely make a doctor's appointment and be certain each little thing is fantastic. and end ingesting those potential beverages!

Answer 5

Since most women do not know they are pregnant until 6 -8 weeks gestation it is safe to assume that many drink before finding out and everything is fine.
I did with my first and he is 8 yrs old and fine. I got totally smashed on my 30th birthday only to discover 4 days later that we were having an unexpected addition to the family. My daughter is now 3 and totally fine. Did I feel guilty and scared after discovering I was pregnant? Yes , but that comes with being a parent.

Answer 6

An occassional drink THAT early in pregnancy should be fine.

I went to Germany last year with a woman who had a 4-mo old daughter. While we were over there, she drank her fair share of beer and wine only to discover upon returning that she had actually conceived a week or so prior to the trip. Her baby son is just fine.

Answer 7

It's fine as long as they aren't drinking constantly. If they have a few on the weekend it wont have any effect on the baby. 2 weekends during my pregnancy I got smashingly drunk (not knowing I was pregnant mind you) and my doctor says my baby looks extremely healthy! But if they are seriously trying to conceive then they shouldnt take the chance. I took a pregnancy test both times before drinking and they both came out negative so I went ahead and drank...then 2 weeks later it was positive...oops.

Answer 8

Many women drink before learning they are pregnant. So long as they stop the fetus should be fine. If, however they are trying to conceive..they should avoid getting "drunk". An occasionally glass of wine while trying to conceive is fine.

Answer 9

Here's an article on drinking before you know you're pregnant. It's from a great book that I highly recommend buying.

"I had a few drinks on several occasions before I knew I was pregnant. Could the alcohol have harmed my baby?

'Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, now beware, drink no wine or strong drink', and angel warns Samson's mother in the Book of Judges.

Let's face it - Samson's mother was lucky. She was able to start ordering Evian when her son was just a gleam in his father's eye. But not many women are lucky enough to receive such an advance notice of conception. And because they're often unaware of their pregnancies until several weeks in, most mum-to-be are apt to have done a few things they wouldn't have done if only they'd known. Which is why your concern is one of the most common brought to the first prenatal visit.

Fortunatly, it's also one of the concerns that can most easily be put aside. There's no evidence that a few drinks on a couple of occasions early in pregnancy will prove harmful to a developing embryo.

Continuing to drink regularly throughout pregnancy, however, is associated with a wide variety of problems in the offspring. That's not surprising when you consider that alcohol enters the fetal bloodstream in approxiametly the same concentrations present in the mother's blood, each drink a pregnant women takes is shared with her baby. Since it takes the fetus twice as long as its mother to eliminate the alcohol from its system, the baby can be at the point of passing out when the mother is just pleasantly tipsy.

Heavy drinking (generally considered to be the consumptin of five or six drinks of wine, beer or distilled spirits a day) throughout pregnancy can result, in addition to many serious obstetrical complications, in what is known as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Described as 'the hangover that lasts a lifetime', this condition produces infants who are born undersized, usually mentally deficient, with multiple deformities (particularly of the head and face, limbs, heart, and central nervous system) and have a high mortality rate. Later, those who survive display learning, behavioural and social problems, and generally lack the ability to make sound judgements. The sooner a heavy drinker stops drinking during pregnancy, the less risk to her baby.

The risks of continued drinking are certainly dose related; the more you drink, the more potential danger to your baby. But even moderate consumption (one to two drinks daily or occasional heavy bringeing on five or more drinks), if it occurs throughout pregnancy, is related to a variety of serious problems, including increased risk of micarriage, prematurity, labour and delivery complications, low birthweight, stillbirth, abnormal growth, and developmental problems in childhood. Such drinking has also been linked to the somewhat more subtle fetal alcohol effect (FAE), characterised by numerous developmental and behavioural problems.

Although some women drink lightly during pregnancy - one glass of wine nightly, for instance - and still manage to deliver a healthy baby, there is no assurance this is a wise practice. All that is known about alcohol and pregnancy leads to this suggesttion; although you shouldn't worry about what you drank before you knew you were pregnant, it would be prudent to abstain for the rest of your pregnancy - except perhaps for a celebratory half-glass of wine on a very special occasions (taken with a meal, since food reduces the absorption of alcohol).

That's as easily done as said for some women - especially those who develop a distaste for alcohol in early pregnancy, which may linger through delivery. For others, particularly those who are accustomed to 'unwinding' with cocktails at the end of the day to drinking wine with dinner, abstinence may require a concerted effort, and may include a lifestyle change. If you drink to relax, for example, try substituting for other methods of relaxtion; musuic, warm baths, massage, exercise or reading. If drinking is part of a daily ritual that you won't want to give up, try a Virgin Mary (a Bloody Mary without the vodka) at brunch, sparkling cidar or grape juice or nonalcohol malt beer at dinner, a juice spritzer (half juice, half carbonated water, with a twist) or a Mock Strawberry Daiquiri or Virgin Sangria - served at the accustomed time in the accustomed glasses, with the accustomed ceremony. If your spouse joins you on the wagon (at least while in your company) the ride will be considerably smoother.

'What to expect when you're expecting' Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg and Sandee Hathaway

Answer 10

well actuly the risks ar greater at the begining thay could actuly kill the baby if thay consum to much alcohal there r many birth defects thay can have and alot of other problems and the baby can be born addicted to alcohal