Can I Drink While Pregnant? A Brain Development Expert Shares the Latest Science Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

It’s recommended that if you’re pregnant or planning to become pregnant you should not drink alcohol. Researchers who knew nothing about the maternal consumption of alcohol during the pregnancy examined the 5-year-old children of those pregnancies. They performed tests on IQ, attention span, and executive functions such as planning, organization, and self-control. They were unable to tell any difference between children whose mothers drank low to moderate amounts of alcohol and those who abstained completely during pregnancy. A report from Canada describes similar results, but a smaller percentage (6.7%) of women consuming alcohol in pregnancy. However, they also observed an increased rate of cannabis and tobacco use, as well as increased depressive symptoms and financial difficulties in patients who consumed cannabis or tobacco during pregnancy.

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Higher number of Infants from the exposed group were SGA (35.0% vs 25.8%), experienced respiratory distress syndrome (21.3% vs 11.3%), and were hospitalized for more than 5 days (65.0% vs 10.3%). While no infant in the reference group was diagnosed with NAS, more than half of the infants in the exposed group were diagnosed with NAS (57.5% vs 0%). There is no known safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, and all women are advised to give it up completely.

• “A large focus of the study is the use of alcohol and substances in pregnancies,” she says.
• The question of whether it’s safe to drink alcohol while pregnant has been a subject of debate for years.
• Drinking during pregnancy can cause your baby to develop a serious life-long condition called fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
• For decades, researchers have known that heavy drinking during pregnancy can cause birth defects.
• There is no known safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, and all women are advised to give it up completely.
• The CDC explains that during pregnancy, alcohol in the blood passes to the fetus through the umbilical cord, crossing the placenta.

Here’s what doctors say pregnant women should keep in mind when deciding whether to drink lightly or to steer clear of alcohol altogether. Find out what experts say about whether light drinking is risky when you’re pregnant. Your midwife will offer you information and support on how to cut down or stop drinking alcohol.

• However, pregnant patients who choose to drink should understand that any alcohol consumption – not just binge drinking – increases specific risks during pregnancy.
• A 2019 review found that for pregnant people who drank five or fewer alcoholic drinks a week, each additional drink per week increased their risk of miscarriage by 6%.
• These conditions range from mild to severe and include speech and language delays, learning disabilities, abnormal facial features, small head size, and many other problems.
• The development of the central nervous system in the fetus is extremely vulnerable to teratogens early in development.

Dr. Rajagopalan is a Principal Investigator at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Assistant Professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Her research includes studying the development of a baby’s brain in utero using advanced MRI imaging technology. Using cocaine or methamphetamine — also called speed, Tina, crank, or ice — increases the risk of miscarriage early in the pregnancy. Later in the pregnancy, these illicit drugs may cause pre-term labor and low birth weight, as well as babies who are irritable and have feeding difficulties. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, premature birth and your baby having a low birthweight. The trouble with guidelines that recommend total abstinence is they don’t involve nuance.

Discuss the risks of drinking while pregnant with a health provider

And after delivery, babies who have been exposed to marijuana seem to undergo withdrawal symptoms with excessive crying and trembling. Taking almost any drug during pregnancy can have serious consequences for the fetus. For instance, babies who are exposed to cocaine have a tendency to have smaller heads which indicate a lower IQ.

Pregnancy, birth and raising children

It’s that no amount of alcohol at any point in pregnancy has been absolutely proven to be safe. CDC works with partners across the country to address alcohol and other substance use during pregnancy and FASDs. These scientific findings help inform evidence-based care and resources. They collaborate to provide training to healthcare professionals and disseminate updated information. People who find out they are pregnant and may have drunk alcohol while being pregnant need to stop immediately.

You probably should not drink, for example, if you have liver disease, a history of addiction, or are on any medications that may conflict with alcohol, such as antidepressants. Two studies from 2021 support the idea that alcohol consumption during pregnancy isn’t a good idea – both for the overall outcome of the pregnancy and for fetal neurodevelopment. We are less sure about the risks of low to moderate drinking, and until we have better information, it’s understandable that health organizations and providers would advise complete abstinence from alcohol. While we’ve long known that heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy can cause these problems, the effects of an occasional glass of wine is less understood. Because we’re just not sure, there has been a push for women to refrain from consuming any alcohol while trying to get pregnant and during pregnancy.

A study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that participants who consumed energy drinks before pregnancy had a higher risk of developing high blood pressure during pregnancy. When pregnant people have support from people around them, it can make saying no to alcohol a lot easier. Studies have also suggested that women are less likely to drink during their pregnancies if their partners also abstain. It is also thought that alcohol consumption before conception also affects sperm. This could lead to developmental problems for the child in the future, both intellectual and physical. Although heavy drinking can obviously be harmful, the risks of light and moderate drinking aren’t as clear.

Premature babies often face health issues because their bodies marijuana addiction are not fully developed. Additionally, drinking during pregnancy increases the risk of stillbirth. 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.

• Your care should be appropriate, inclusive and sensitive to your needs whatever your gender identity.
• The AAP reaffirmed their recommendation that no amount of alcohol should be consumed during any trimester of pregnancy with a video series in 2019.
• Caffeine is legal and prevalent in foods such as chocolate and drinks such as coffee and sodas.
• Some doctors recommend that you completely avoid alcohol when you’re expecting; others say that occasional light drinking is unlikely to harm your baby.

So if you drank alcohol before you realized you were pregnant, the important thing is that you stop now. Numerous reliable sources and studies (like the one we mentioned above) mention that alcohol use in the first trimester may increase miscarriage risk. The CDC suggests that up to 1 standard drink per day is not known to harm the infant, especially if a person waits at least 2 hours before nursing.

A 2018 study found that pregnant people who consumed more than 12.5 alcoholic drinks per week had higher odds of experiencing pregnancy-related high blood pressure disorders. High blood pressure during pregnancy (known https://ecosoberhouse.com/ medically as gestational hypertension) can put the mother and baby at risk for complications during and after delivery. When the mother’s blood pressure is high, it is hard for the baby to get enough oxygen and nutrients to grow, which may cause the mother to deliver the baby prematurely.