I'm actually friends with my OB/GYN (outside the office as well, I mean) so I asked her about drinking while trying to conceive.  She said I could have a glass or two as at this stage as a potential pregnancy is either viable or not and not affected by a little tippling.  She said FASD babies are born to heavy drinking alchololics and not women who occasionally have a glass with dinner.  Of course, I'll still probably drink much less than normal (and I don't drink a whole lot normally).

I think it's all about moderation.  I love coffee and decided to go cold turkey throughout my pregnancy because I couldn't trust myself to have "just one".

If you can moderate then go ahead but it's only a few months of sacrifice anyways, unless you breastfeed of course. 

Maria Melo

http://www.conversationswithmoms.com

I agree with you and others about the moderation bit. I also had a small glass of merlot now and then during my pregnancy. I also ate a bit of sushi as a treat at a restaurant we know well (granted, the sushi we usually eat in extreme moderation anyway - it's not cheap!) from time to time.

I eat well, as I did during pregnancy, and I always have a positive frame of mind. My child is wonderful, smart, beautiful and most importantly - perfectly healthy. 

In fact, the only negative effect I experienced having a glass of wine while pregnant was having to endure nasty looks from others and reading preachy posts by others about what a terrible, selfish person I was. 

I'd like to think my child is so healthy because I have good, positive energy and was confident in my decisions.   ;-)

Jess

Momelettes.com - Moms are beaten and fried. These tech tips and lifehacks will help!

 After reading both Damaged Angels by Bonnie Buxton and The Broken Cord by Michael Dorris, I wouldn't even risk a drink or two. 9 months of sobriety isn't that big of a deal.

Jupiter's Blog

I agree.  In the words of Jimmy Buffett, "moderation seems to be the key."  Several friends of mine who are MDs echoed what fitnessfig's OB said; occasional drinks are fine, it's the women that drink regularly and heavily that incur problems. 

While pregnant with my first, I visited the U.K. Since I was eager to try local brews, I was thrilled on several counts. First, not only did no one raise an eyebrow when I ordered a drink, servers without exception asked for my order.  Also, you can actually order a half-pint glass of beer there. Score! No one blinked at the sight of me with half a glass of beer or wine in my hand and, although I didn't make a habit if it, I was able to enjoy a few drinks over the course of my visit without feeling like a social pariah. (Probably because the Royal College of Obstetricians recommends no more than 2 drinks per day.

Here at home, though, we Americans seem so worried that women are not able to make judicious choices for themselves.  Therefore medical recommendations deny any suggestion of anything other than complete teetotaling. It's a little paternalistic if you ask me.

I agree in general that moderation is key. That is true for thinks like junk food, television, etc. However, there are instances where even moderation is not appropriate. 

As it relates to alcohol during pregnancy in particular, research has shown that some mothers can drink excessively with no detrimental results to their baby and others only drink moderately and end up with babies that have brain damage. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/fasd-etcaf/faq-eng.php

The human brain is an amazing, resistent and yet fragile thing. Why are some people able to sustain daily beatings at home and still turn out okay while others go off the deep end? Why can some people brush off bullying in school, while others go into a deep depression and hurt others or committ suicide? We don't know which people are going to be resilient and which ones will not. This is the same with fetal alcohol syndrome. 

PhD in Parenting - http://phdinparenting.wordpress.com

I do enjoy both alcohol and lots of coffee, but I plan to give them both up completely if I am able to get pregnant.  It will suck.  Oh man it will suck.  But it's only temporary.  Since the research on alcohol (and on coffee) consumption during pregnancy is not absolute, I'd just don't want to risk anything.  I figure better safe than sorry.  

I cut down on coffee ALOT also, I ended up having one cup in the morning instead of my usual two. I think the main thing is to make your decision based on what YOU feel comfortable with, and then stand by your decision. My body doesn't handle caffeine well, so I felt strongly about cutting back. I believe (as crazy as I know it sounds ) that the body uses the biofeedback it gets as either positive or negative energy. Confidence is such positive energy.  :-)  I guess know yourself, and know your body.

Of course know that the kid is out, I'm drinking more coffee than I ever did. How on Earth did that happen?  :-)

I see the hysteria around drinking as just another example of hysteria in all parenting. Yes, some pregnant women have drinking problems and this poses a large risk to their unborn children. But saying a pregnant woman should never touch a drop blows this real problem completely out of proportion. As a parent, I'm tired of having to scrutinize every little choice I make, from which sunscreen to choose to what kind of mattress to buy. Apparently everything in the world threatens to harm my children. I need a drink ;)

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I'm about half way into my first pregnancy and I tried the whole moderation thing with Diet Coke.  I can't live without it, so I thought I'd just have the caffeine in "moderation."  What a joke.  Once I pop a can, I want about 15 more.  So I can't imagine what I'd be like if I tried to moderate alcoholic beverages.  I think moderation and monitoring yourself during pregnancy is really dependent on the type of person that you are.  If you're like me and have no self control whatsoever, then maybe cold turkey is the better option than moderation.

 Take care,

Katie

www.marriageconfessions.wordpress.com

I didn't consume any alcohol with either of my pregnancies.  I know that in many parts of the world women drink moderately and their babies are fine, but as someone who rarely drinks anyway, it wasn't a big sacrifice.

When I was pregnant, though, I found that people looked at me differently.  What I was eating for lunch, whether or not I got a flu shot, these somehow become issues of public interest.  And I sort of hated that.  Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean that others are suddenly allowed to judge your personal decisions.  And I feel the same way about drinking.  It's nobody's business if a pregnant woman makes an informed choice to have a small drink now and again.

~ Amber

www.strocel.com

Should we discount this study because it was limited to more affluent mothers? 

 It's true.  There could be a number of reasons why babies of less affluent mothers might fare worse with moderate alcohol exposure.  They may be more vulnerable in important ways and thus react differently to even small amounts of alchohol.  But that doesn't invalidate these results suggesting light drinking doesn't generally affect babies of healthy women.  Most women can probably safely drink moderately during pregnancy.  But it's also possibly we'll identify some gene accounting for a small percentage of even well-off babes that might be vulnerable.  Such is the direction of parenting/child research.  Unfortunately it's impossible to pinpoint these children now.  But that's how we have to read all research and knowledge about children.  We've always known there are children who don't fit the pattern.   We have to remember that research findings speak to the general child, not the individual child. 

http://mommadata.blogspot.com/

I didn't drink while pregnant with any of my three children.  I'm not a big drinker and I really didn't miss it, anyway.  For me, drinking while pregnant was never an option.  It's not that I'm some prudish abstainer....it's just that I am that freakish person that always falls into the "small percentage catagory."  You know what I mean by "small percentage catagory"? Well, I'm the person that if there is some small risk of something happening...it will happen to me.  So, I always thought if I didn't want my child being born with a third eye...I better not do anything out of the ordinary.  I was always thinking that if I had that 4oz. glass of merlot...it would be just my luck that my baby would be born with a sixth finger, etc.  Seriously.

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