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I like to drink. A lot. With dinner. Without dinner. With friends. With my husband. So when I stopped drinking in 2003, it was like wearing a big, flashing, I'M PREGNANT side on my forehead. I was fooling no one.
During my pregnancy (what feels like 100 years ago), I had probably the equivalent of two glasses of wine meted out over nine months in shot glasses. Going nine months without really drinking was good for me, as it did teach this former party girl there are other, more productive ways to deal with a bad day at the office. Despite my many lessons, I was happy to return to my moderate-drinking ways once my daughter was weaned.
If I were to put another bun in my oven (don't hold your breath), I think I'd be less conservative about drinking, though. Since my daughter was born, I've hung out with several women I respect and trust and watched them guiltlessly rest a half-filled wine glass on their burgeoning bellies at social events. I think now that everything (except whether or not to use the carseat or let your kid drink bleach) in motherhood is about moderation.
A recent U.K. study quoted by Jill U. Adams of the LA Times has social drinking mommies excited. The results? Light drinking while pregnant = not a big deal and maybe ... good?
The study, published online in October in the International Journal of Epidemiology, defined light drinking as not more than two drinks (a 4-fluid-ounce glass of wine or 10 fluid ounces of weak beer) on a single occasion and not more than two occasions per week. No difference was seen between women who drank once or twice during their pregnancies and those who regularly enjoyed a weekend glass of wine.
Some groups are concerned the media coverage of the study indicated that not only was light drinking okay, that it was a good thing. Mary Hardin at Bio-Medicine writes:
However, this result may be based on the higher socioeconomic status of the light drinking mothers and their children involved in this study. Higher socioeconomic status is well known to improve an infant's neurodevelopmental outcome. The study's authors, Dr. Yvonne Kelly at University College London and colleagues, suggested this explanation for their findings and the FASD Study Group agrees with that conclusion.
Erica Kaine at Poked and Prodded is pregnant and craving a beer. However, she couldn't find one medical professional that would tell her to hit the bottle, even a little. In fact, everyone scared her:
In addition to the massive guilt I would feel if my child suffered because of my inability to shun a good brew, the spectre of caring for a baby who suffers from the effects of FASD is too great, not to mention the special treatment required for an older child with FASD. It’s not worth it — no amount, and at no time during pregnancy. So I’ll toast the new year with sparking cider and look forward to a healthy new year for me and my fetus.
Not everyone is quite so hardcore. Jennie at She Likes Purple is eight months pregnant and indulged, just a bit, over the holidays.
I still need a wee bit of time to recover from all the food and fun. Recovery in the form of chronic napping and not, say, chronic drinking, which was always my recovery tool of choice before. Ah, how things have changed. (I did enjoy a very nice glass of wine late Christmas Eve night, though. I'm out of control.)
If you like a cold one and hate suffering through pregnancy without one, our own Liz Gumbinner has reviewed The Newly Non-Drinking Girl's Guide to Pregnancy on Cool Mom Picks. Survive on, sistahs.
