Drink alcohol during pregnancy

Can I drink alcohol while I am pregnant?

The simple answer is NO. The overall consensus is that alcohol is bad during pregnancy. Both the CDC and the WHO strongly advocate complete abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy. There is no safe amount of alcohol and even a single drop is too much. 

Alcohol is a social drink and not necessary or essential for the fetus so why muck around with mother nature? There are plenty of studies which have shown that drinking alcohol can increase risk of miscarriage, cause still birth and also induce premature births. Further, heavy drinking of alcohol during pregnancy is also associated with fetal alcohol syndrome which typically presents with malformed facial features, mental retardation, learning difficulties, poor concentration, variable moods with aggression and numerous other behavior problems.

There is also evidence indicating that drinking alcohol during pregnancy may lead to a rare childhood leukemia and decreased sperm count in newborn males. Despite these frightening observations, women continue to drink.

While some European countries discourage any alcohol during pregnancy, some like the Swiss and British recommend that one drink per day is okay.

It is well established that heavy drinking during pregnancy significantly harms the infant but what about the rare drink on a special occasion? Well, there is no data on small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy but the WHO recommends no alcohol at all. WHO data show that even low amounts of alcohol can lead to mental decline in infants.

This data may appear very discouraging to women who already have to abide by many rules and regulations of pregnancy. But we live in a free society and everyone has choices. The choices are very simple. Drink alcohol, have a jolly good time now and have a handicapped infant or do not drink any alcohol and have an infant who will be your shining star.