Drinking without knowing your pregnant

Alcohol and Pregnancy Questions and Answers

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A: The most important thing is that you have completely stopped alcohol use after learning of your pregnancy. It is never too late to stop alcohol use during pregnancy. Because brain growth takes place throughout pregnancy, stopping alcohol use will improve the baby’s health and well-being.

If you used any amount of alcohol while you were pregnant, talk with your child’s health care provider as soon as possible and share your concerns. Make sure you get regular prenatal checkups.

A: Any type of alcohol use can affect your baby’s growth and development and cause FASDs. This includes all wines, beer, and mixed drinks. A standard drink is defined as .60 ounces of pure alcohol. This is equivalent to one 12-ounce beer or wine cooler, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80 proof distilled spirits (hard liquor). Some drinks, like mixed alcoholic drinks or malt liquor drinks, might have more alcohol in them than a 12-ounce beer. There is no safe kind of alcohol. If you have any questions about your alcohol use and its risks to your health, talk to your health care provider. You can also visit CDC’s website on alcohol.

Go to the Information for Women page for a picture of the types of standard-sized drinks and the amount of alcohol they contain.

A: There is no known safe amount of alcohol use during your pregnancy or when you are trying to get pregnant. There is also no safe time for alcohol use during pregnancy. Alcohol can cause problems for your baby throughout your pregnancy, including before you know you are pregnant.

FASDs are preventable if a baby is not exposed to alcohol before birth.

A: Every pregnancy is different. Alcohol use during pregnancy might affect one baby more than another. You could have one child who is born healthy and another child who is born with problems.

A: 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.

You may not know right away if your child has been affected. FASDs include a range of physical and intellectual disabilities that are not always easy to identify when a child is a newborn. Some of these effects may not be known until your child is in school.

There is no cure for FASDs. However, identifying and intervening with children with these conditions as early as possible can help them to reach their full potential.

A: You might be pregnant and not know it yet. You probably won’t know you are pregnant for up to 4 to 6 weeks. This means you might be exposing your baby to alcohol without meaning to.

Alcohol use during pregnancy can also lead to miscarriage and stillbirth.

The best advice is to avoid any alcohol use when you start trying to get pregnant.

A: FASDs are not genetic or hereditary. If a baby is exposed to alcohol during pregnancy, the baby can be born with an FASD. But if a woman has an FASD, her own child cannot have an FASD, unless she uses alcohol during pregnancy.

A: How alcohol affects the male sperm is currently being studied. Whatever the effects are found to be, they are not fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). FASDs are caused specifically when a baby is exposed to alcohol during pregnancy.

However, the father’s role is important. He can help the woman avoid alcohol use during pregnancy. He can encourage her to abstain from alcohol by avoiding social situations that involve drinking. He can also help her by avoiding alcohol himself.

A: If you cannot stop drinking, contact your doctor, local Alcoholics Anonymous, or local alcohol treatment center.

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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a treatment facility locator. This locator helps people find drug and alcohol treatment programs in their area.

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A: If you think your child might have an FASD, talk to your child’s doctor and share your concerns. Don’t wait!

If you or the doctor thinks there could be a problem, ask the doctor for a referral to a specialist (someone who knows about FASDs), such as a developmental pediatrician, child psychologist, or clinical geneticist. In some cities, there are clinics whose staffs have special training in diagnosing and treating children with FASDs. To find doctors and clinics in your area visit the National and State Resource Directoryexternal icon from FASD United (formerly NOFAS).

At the same time as you ask the doctor for a referral to a specialist, call your state or territory’s early intervention program to request a free evaluation to find out if your child can get services to help. This is sometimes called a Child Find evaluation. You do not need to wait for a doctor’s referral or a medical diagnosis to make this call.

Where to call for a free evaluation from the state depends on your child’s age:

• If your child is younger than 3 years old, Call your state or territory’s early intervention program and say: “I have concerns about my child’s development and I would like to have my child evaluated to find out if he/she is eligible for early intervention services.”
  Find your state’s early intervention contact information here.
  Learn more about early intervention »external icon
• If your child is 3 years old or older, contact your local public school system.
  Even if your child is not old enough for kindergarten or enrolled in a public school, call your local elementary school or board of education and ask to speak with someone who can help you have your child evaluated.
  Learn more about this process »external icon

Drinking Alcohol While Pregnant in First 3 Weeks: Is It Safe?

It happens. Perhaps you went off birth control a few months ago to try for a baby, but weren’t expecting to get pregnant so soon. You did cut back on alcohol to up your chances of conceiving, but you continued having a glass of wine here and there.

Or maybe you weren’t trying to get pregnant at all, and it came as a surprise when you realized that your period was over a week late. Now you’re looking at two pink lines on a home pregnancy test and freaking out about the night out with your girlfriends that you enjoyed a few days ago.

Maybe you’ve even known for a couple weeks that you’re pregnant, but you went ahead and toasted the bride and groom at a recent wedding because your friend told you small amounts of alcohol so early in pregnancy don’t do any harm.

Whatever the case, you’re now worried and want to know what damage, if any, drinking in very early pregnancy can do.

First off, take a deep breath and let go of any guilt or shame that you feel about the past. You’re in a no-judgement zone here. Next, continue reading to learn what the side effects can be — and most importantly, what you can do to ensure good health for you and your baby moving forward.

At the very top of its alcohol and pregnancy information sheet — and in bold type, no less — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that women who are trying to become pregnant or could be pregnant shouldn’t drink.

Why? It’s not really about the harm done by what you drink before you’re even pregnant (though this may affect your ability to conceive). It’s that no amount of alcohol at any point in pregnancy has been absolutely proven to be safe.

Since you can be pregnant without knowing it, the CDC is covering the possibility that you’re in the earliest stages of pregnancy — 3 or 4 weeks, often even before your missed period. (Many people don’t know they’re pregnant until they’re already 4 to 6 weeks.)

Like the CDC in the United States, the NHS in the United Kingdom says that if you’re pregnant or planning to become pregnant, avoid alcohol.

Truly specific research around drinking alcohol in very early pregnancy is pretty tricky. That’s because it would be unethical to put together a study and actually request that any segment of the pregnant population do something (drink alcohol) known to cause harm even some of the time.

What we do have: research that looks at people who self-report alcohol use during pregnancy as well as some animal studies. We also have a lot of science backing our understanding of human development in the womb, including brain and central nervous system development starting at week 3 of pregnancy (right after implantation).

In one 2015 study done in mice, researchers gave the animals alcohol at 8 days gestation — roughly equivalent to the early fourth week in a human pregnancy. They found that the offspring of these mice had changes to their brain structure.

The results suggested that early alcohol exposure can alter DNA chemical processes. Embryonic stem cells that change as a result of the mother’s alcohol consumption early in pregnancy could even impact adult tissue later on.

To be a little Captain Obvious here, humans aren’t mice. There’s no way to know at this time if this effect happens in the same way in humans. It’s definitely worth further study, though.

On the other hand, a study published in 2013 looked at 5,628 women who self-reported various amounts of alcohol consumption during early pregnancy. (For the purposes of this study, though, “early” meant all the way up until 15 weeks.)

Researchers looked for common effects of alcohol on pregnancy:

• low birth weight
• high maternal blood pressure
• preeclampsia
• smaller-than-expected size for gestational age
• pre-term birth

They didn’t find a strong correlation between drinking early in pregnancy and an increased likelihood of these complications, so some people take this to mean it’s A-OK. But this study only looked at short-term outcomes (not long-term effects that might not show up until childhood) and not fetal alcohol syndrome disorders (FASDs).

These studies represent two ends of the spectrum — one shows some scary possibilities about changed DNA, and the other suggests no ill effects. Most studies fall more in the murky middle, though.

For example, this 2014 study looked at 1,303 pregnant women in the United Kingdom and their alcohol consumption before pregnancy and during all three trimesters. Results suggested that drinking — even fewer than two drinks per week — in the first trimester increased risk of complications, like lower birth weight and pre-term birth.

And this research published in 2012 suggested that even light drinking in the early weeks could increase miscarriage risk, though the risk goes up with heavier drinking.

It might be accurate to look at all the information out there and say that very light drinking in very early pregnancy doesn’t always (or often) cause problems — but it could. And different people define “light” differently, adding to the confusion. So following CDC and NHS guidelines of no alcohol at any point is the safest option and the one that we recommend.

There are a couple big concerns with drinking early in pregnancy: miscarriage and fetal alcohol syndrome disorders.

It’s an incredibly difficult reality that miscarriages are as common as they are. And even if you do everything by the book, the highest risk of miscarriage is in the first trimester — and it often happens due to issues outside of your control (like chromosomal abnormalities).

Numerous reliable sources and studies (like the one we mentioned above) mention that alcohol use in the first trimester may increase miscarriage risk. Why this happens isn’t entirely clear.

The other big risk is FASDs. Symptoms include:

• pre-term birth
• low birth weight
• neurological problems
• behavioral problems that show up later in childhood
• certain abnormal facial features (thin upper lip, small eyes, missing vertical crease between the nose and lips)
• cognitive difficulties

Here’s something to remember: in-utero human development doesn’t happen all at once. It happens over a 40-week period (more or less, but you know what we mean) and there are many contributing factors.

And while drinking at any stage of pregnancy should be avoided, both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists say harm from having a little alcohol before you knew you were pregnant is unlikely.

So if you drank alcohol before you realized you were pregnant, the important thing is that you stop now. Your tiny human’s brain has a lot of development yet to go.

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.

And while we’re on the topic of those prenatal appointments — talk to your doctor candidly about your concerns and let them know that you had alcohol early on.

If you feel uncomfortable chatting with them about things that may affect your pregnancy, find a new doctor. Being able to speak honestly about your health and the health of your baby during pregnancy is crucial to having a healthy, happy nine months.

ALCOHOL AND PREGNANCY - Outpatient medical facility

The fact that you can not drink alcohol during pregnancy is known to most. However, different situations can arise in life: one woman is planning a pregnancy, continuing to drink alcohol on holidays in order to avoid uncomfortable questions; another drinks a glass of wine, unaware that she is already pregnant; the third during pregnancy cannot cope with the desire to drink beer, believing that "a little bit is possible." Let's look at these situations in more detail.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy planning.

Alcohol is a toxin that adversely affects the human reproductive system. In women, alcohol consumption leads to disruption of the menstrual cycle and hormonal balance, which significantly affects the ability to conceive. There are also opinions that even episodic alcohol consumption can have a negative effect on the eggs, leading to their inferiority. Also, alcohol consumption affects the male reproductive system, significantly reducing the number of sperm capable of fertilization. Therefore, a couple planning a pregnancy should stop drinking alcohol at least 3 months in advance in order to increase the likelihood of conception.

Drinking alcohol in the first weeks after conception.

Without a special examination, a woman usually discovers the fact of pregnancy at 3 weeks after conception, when the next menstruation does not come. By this time, the embryo has already firmly attached to the uterine cavity and began to receive nutrition from the mother's blood. If negative factors, including alcohol, affect him before the moment of attachment, then this will lead to his rejection and death, and he will simply leave the uterus with the next menstruation. Thus, a woman may not know that she was pregnant.

According to most scientists, if alcohol did not disrupt the attachment process and the embryo continued to develop, then this would not lead to the formation of malformations in it. Thus, alcohol accidentally drunk during the first two weeks after conception will either lead to the termination of pregnancy or will not affect its further development.

Alcohol use in early pregnancy.

As mentioned above, as early as the 3rd week after conception, the embryo begins to come into contact with maternal blood. This means that all the substances in the mother's blood come to him. including ethyl alcohol. From the 3rd to the 13th week of development, the laying of all the main systems of the body of the unborn child occurs and the effect of alcohol no longer leads to rejection and death of the embryo, but to the formation of malformations and deformities of the nervous, cardiovascular, and digestive systems.

Alcohol use in late pregnancy.

The negative impact of alcohol on the course of pregnancy is observed after the 13th week. Ethanol and its decay products lead to spasm of the vessels of the placenta and umbilical cord, impairing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients, leading to a delay in the development of the fetus, disruption of its nervous system and brain. A prolonged lack of oxygen can even lead to the death of a child. Violation of the nervous system in the prenatal period leads to problems in the later life of the child - such children have reduced stress resistance, problems in learning, in communication, a tendency to mental illness and alcohol consumption.

The systematic use of alcohol during pregnancy leads to the formation of fetal alcohol syndrome in a child - this is a complex of physical, mental and intellectual abnormalities in a child that cannot be treated.

Thus, alcohol and pregnancy are not compatible and it is necessary to refuse it at the planning stage.

You need to understand that one glass of wine, drunk before 2 or after 13 weeks of pregnancy, most likely will not lead to disastrous consequences, but is it worth the risk? Remember that your child will “drink” half of this glass.

The effect of alcohol during pregnancy on the fetus: a modern view of the problem

Many women believe that it is possible to drink alcohol during pregnancy, albeit in small quantities. Of course, we are not talking about hard liquor like vodka or cognac, but a glass of red wine or beer is another matter.

However, everything is not as simple as it might seem at first glance, and even small doses of ethanol can cause irreversible changes in the development of the child. Medicine still does not give an exact answer about the permissible strength and volume of drinks that can be consumed during pregnancy without fear.

Important! Recent scientific studies have shown that even small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can increase the chances of preterm birth and underweight babies (LBW).

Alcohol in early pregnancy

When ingested by a pregnant woman, ethanol crosses the placental barrier and has a devastating effect on the fetal brain. If a mother regularly drinks alcohol during early gestation, it can lead to damage to the white matter, cerebellum, and brainstem.

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy in the early stages is fraught with a violation of the formation of the brain structures of the child, and also contributes to the development of such serious defects as:

• mental retardation;
• micro-, hydrocephalus;
• oligophrenia, etc.

It is believed that in the first days and even weeks after pregnancy, alcohol is allowed. The placenta is not yet formed, which means that there will be no harm to the baby. However, ethanol makes it difficult for the embryo to attach, thereby increasing the risk of miscarriage.

Pregnant women in the first trimester are strongly discouraged from drinking alcohol, even in small quantities. This also applies to beer, wine and other low-alcohol drinks. Get a remote consultation from our gynecologists to protect yourself and your baby.

First week of pregnancy: a crucial stage

Alcohol is quite capable of harming the fetus in the first 5-7 days after conception, when it is only a fertilized egg. According to statistics, a huge number of miscarriages happen precisely in the early stages, when a woman does not yet know about pregnancy and, as they say, "misses a glass or two."

During the first week, the fertilized egg travels to the uterus through the fallopian tube. At this time, the drunk alcohol almost instantly enters the bloodstream and inevitably penetrates into the zygote. The result is very often spontaneous abortion, or miscarriage.

Case study:

When registering, the woman was worried that the child might be born handicapped, as there was alcohol consumption during pregnancy. She complained of nagging pain and heaviness in the lower abdomen, which was the reason for hospitalization. The pregnancy was saved.

What does "early" mean

By early is meant the gestation period in the first three months - that is, the 1st trimester. Conventionally, it can be divided into 2 periods:

1. The first 10-12 days from the moment of conception.
2. From 12-13 days to 13 weeks (end of the 1st trimester).

Effect of alcohol on the fetus during the first 10-12 days after pregnancy

Every woman from birth has a large set of follicles, of which there are about 500 thousand. New follicles no longer appear, and some die. This does not really matter, since no more than 500 of them will mature over the entire fertile period.

But under the influence of ethanol, the death of follicles is accelerated, and some are damaged. If a spermatozoon fertilizes a damaged egg, a child may develop congenital malformations.

The less alcohol a woman drinks, the healthier her eggs are.

Even strong alcohol does not affect the state of the fertilized egg, if the pregnancy has already begun. A healthy oocyte is not threatened with damage, and the process of cell division will go according to the plan laid down by nature.

The danger lies in the fact that alcohol activates the production of a specific fluid in the fallopian tubes. The latter are the springboard through which the egg enters the uterus. If the fallopian tubes are blocked, the embryo will simply get stuck and attach to the wall of the tube before reaching the uterus.

On the 4-5th day after the onset of pregnancy, the embryo has about 58 cells and enters the uterus. It is built into its wall, and the formation of the chorion, the outer shell of the embryo, begins.

Up to 12-13 days, that is, before the circulatory system appears in the placenta, alcohol drunk by a pregnant woman can destroy the embryo, causing a miscarriage. However, he is not capable at this stage of pregnancy to cause any pathology.

All of the above does not apply to women suffering from alcoholism, and only applies to those who drink a little, rarely and only quality drinks.

If a pregnant woman drank alcohol at an early date, not yet knowing about her “interesting position”, you should not worry too much. It is unlikely that this will affect the health of the unborn child. However, you need to make sure that there is no ectopic pregnancy.

Why alcohol should not be drunk from the 12th-13th day to the 13th week of pregnancy

Around this time, the placental circulatory system begins to form. This means that the fetus takes oxygen and nutrition directly from the mother's body. If the mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy, the blood vessels will narrow, and the child will receive less oxygen: he will experience a state of hypoxia (oxygen starvation).

Even the liver of an adult perceives alcohol as a poisonous substance. In the fetus, the liver is just beginning to form and is not able to cope with the poison, the amount of which in his blood is similar to that in the blood of the mother, thanks to the placental circulatory system.

Case study:

The patient turned to the gynecologist for advice about a possible pregnancy with the question "to save or not to save." She admitted that she drank alcohol, not knowing about her condition. The term is 12 weeks. Ultrasound showed the absence of fetal abnormalities and the threat of miscarriage. In due time, the woman gave birth to a healthy child.

Pregnant women cannot drink alcohol in the 1st trimester, as all systems and organs of the baby are laid. You should be especially careful in the period from 28 to 49the day when the laying of facial features occurs. Drinking alcohol can negatively affect a child's appearance.

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy at the very beginning of the term is highly undesirable. The consequences can be catastrophic:

Alcohol during early pregnancy significantly increases the risk of miscarriage and premature birth. But it is important to know that even with the birth of a healthy child, the consequences may appear later. Most often they occur during puberty.

Important! It doesn't matter what the mother drinks - red or white wine, beer, cider, low-alcohol cocktails or homemade liquor.

Is it possible to drink wine during pregnancy in the second trimester

With the second trimester, everything is both easier and more difficult. The question is how much and when. Of course, it is better to completely refrain from alcohol, replacing them with tasty and healthy juices.

Intemperance in relation to alcohol can provoke a child:

• heart disease;
• distortion of facial features, disproportion of body parts;
• reduced muscle tone;
• impaired ability to concentrate, which will lead to learning difficulties;
• violation of diction, speech;
• weak immunity;
• hyperactivity, etc.

One of the consequences of drinking alcohol by a pregnant woman is the fading of the fetus.

However, there is no complete ban on wine during pregnancy in the second trimester. That's just to afford alcohol is allowed only in the middle of the 2nd trimester. At the beginning of this period, the fetus is not yet protected by the placenta, and its organs are actively developing.

1 sip of wine is allowed to drink at the beginning of the 2nd trimester if nausea is tormented.

A glass of wine during pregnancy can help:

• increase hemoglobin and prevent anemia;
• strengthen the cardiovascular system;
• improve mood, normalize the emotional background;
• replenish stocks of trace elements;
• stabilize blood pressure.

Pregnant women in the second trimester are allowed to drink a little wine no more than 1 time in 2 weeks.

However, towards the end of the 2nd trimester, you can’t drink at all, since alcohol can harm the baby and provoke various pathologies. Some experts believe that the intake of alcohol by the mother during this period can lead to alcoholism in the child in the future.

In addition, along with the period, the body weight of the mother and child increases, therefore, products that contribute to weight gain are limited. Red wine is one of them.

Why pregnant women shouldn't drink champagne

Despite the fact that champagne is a type of wine, it is more harmful. Champagne is quite strong and is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream due to carbon dioxide bubbles, causing almost instant intoxication.

Alcohol and pregnancy are incompatible. To make your pregnancy go smoothly, get a consultation with an obstetrician-gynecologist by phone. He will give valuable advice and recommendations.

Beer for pregnant women - is it possible or not

It is undesirable to drink beer during pregnancy, and not only because of the alcohol content in it. There are many different additives in the foamy drink - in particular, cobalt is the foam stabilizer in it. And this element is harmful to the expectant mother and her child.

The amount of cobalt in beer exceeds the permissible norm by 10 times.

Case study:

A pregnant woman from a drinking family regularly drank beer, believing that weak alcohol could be drunk and even useful. By her own admission, sometimes she drank a little vodka. The result was the birth of a baby with fetal alcohol syndrome of the 1st degree (small head, low body weight). A full examination revealed a number of other irregularities.

Why You Shouldn't Drink Non-Alcoholic Beer While Pregnant

The so-called non-alcoholic beer contains from 0.5 to 1.5% ethanol, and drinking alcohol during pregnancy is not worth it, even such a weak one.

Any beer is also harmful because:

• contains many preservatives to ensure long-term storage;
• has a diuretic effect, undesirable for a pregnant woman;
• due to cobalt in its composition, it can cause inflammation in the esophagus and stomach.

Carbonated drinks

Doctors strongly advise pregnant women to exclude soda from the diet, as it adversely affects the stomach and increases gas formation in the intestines.

Carbonated water has a negative effect on the kidneys and gallbladder due to the content of phosphoric acid. This acid is responsible for the regulation of acidity and increases the risk of kidney and gallstone formation, especially in people with a predisposition to stone formation. During pregnancy, the load on the kidneys is already high, so it is better not to drink soda.

Alcohol in the 3rd trimester

Pregnant women in the third trimester are allowed to drink wine, but in an extremely limited amount. Half a glass of the drink can be drunk a maximum of 2 times a week.

The absence of a complete ban on alcohol is justified by the fact that by the third trimester all important processes in the fetal body have been completed, and the likelihood of a violation of its development is minimal.

FAQ

What is the best wine during pregnancy?

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It is better for pregnant women to drink dry table wine. It helps to cope with low blood pressure, removes nausea, stimulates appetite. But for some, dry wines are too acidic, in which case they can be replaced with semi-sweet varieties.

Which is better - white or red wine during pregnancy?

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There is not much difference here, a matter of personal preference. White wine has a positive effect on the functioning of the lungs and heart, but is inferior to red in the amount of antioxidants and the ability to increase hemoglobin. But after it, the head is less often dizzy and there is weakness in the body. Red wine reduces the risk of thrombosis, improves blood formation and helps to eliminate toxins from the body.

How about kvass?

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Alcohol can be pregnant only at certain times described above.

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