subject: There Is No Amount Of Alcohol That Is Safe During Pregnancy [print this page] Alcohol consumption by pregnant women was really not analyzed til the last century. Since scientists and doctors have been analyzing the effects of alcohol on fetuses they have found that it causes more than one birth defect. Prenatal exposure to alcohol can also lead to fetal alcohol syndrome.
There have never been any tests done in relevance to how much alcohol a woman could drink while pregnant before it harms the child. Therefore, the general policy amongst doctors and people is that no alcohol should be consumed while a woman is pregnant. The dangers are too great to run a study to find out if small amounts of alcohol are alright while pregnant. Just like caffeine and other substances, alcohol crosses the placenta, so your child is prone to intaking alcohol when you do. There is no way for a fetus to control the amount of alcohol it would intake and there is no amount of alcohol that is good for a fetus. Alcohol can also not be metabolized by the baby the way it is by the mother, so it will take much longer to leave the baby's and mother's systems. We know that alcohol abuse while pregnant results in birth defects or fetal alcohol syndrome. Scientists have not had the chance to collect the hard evidence to connect alcohol consumption while pregnant with other birth defects. It is thought that alcohol abuse while pregnant may cause a child to be still born as well. However, there is no hard proof linking these two at the moment. So, if you are pregnant, you should wait nine months before you have an alcoholic drink. If you decide to breastfeed, you should avoid drinking alcohol at that time as well. If you are a woman who enjoys the occasional beer or drink, there are various beers on the market that are non alcoholic. This is a far better alternative to giving birth to your child with defects or worse. There is not really a non alcoholic substitute for liquor, but nine months really is not that long of a time to go without a shot of liquor.
