Opinion Why I Drank While I Was Pregnant

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Why I Drank While I Was Pregnant​

I took my pregnancy test after drinking a yard-long margarita at a downtown festival, right before pouring myself a glass of wine.

I wasn't trying to conceive and I was on birth control. I felt confident that only one pink line would show up, but I wanted a little peace of mind. I didn't want to be drinking during pregnancy, after all.

I'd been feeling a little off lately. There was that one night not too long ago when I had forgotten to take my pill in the morning, and I took it at night instead. But what are the odds, right? Next to nothing.

RELATED: Getting Sober Saved My Marriage — And Finally Got Me Pregnant

When I picked up the test three minutes later, there was no mistaking two bold pink lines. I was pregnant.

I took a sip of my wine, then poured the rest down the sink. I didn't really think twice about the margarita I had consumed earlier or the daily drink or two I had enjoyed over the past few weeks.

It was summer, there had been barbecues and events, and even if there hadn't been, I don't need an excuse as a grown woman to enjoy a reasonable amount of alcohol as I see fit.

The CDC, however, doesn't see it that way. Those "pre-pregnancy test" drinks should have been causing major concern and absolute panic.

According to their recommendations, any woman of childbearing age who isn't on birth control should abstain from alcohol completely, just in case they get pregnant. They also made sure to note that women drinking alcohol leads to pregnancy, don't you know?

RELATED: What Giving Birth Feels Like For Your Baby

Setting aside the deeply troubling sexist vibes of these new guidelines, the CDC's recommendations aren't helping anyone, least of all women experiencing unplanned pregnancies.

Dealing with an unexpected pregnancy (or even a wanted pregnancy) is incredibly stressful. These recommendations do nothing to help women positioned to bring a child into the world. If anything, it's causing more unnecessary worry without even bothering to bring any hard evidence to the table.

Of course, drinking during pregnancy can be problematic. And I'm not downplaying the seriousness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

However, the CDC is using the argument that because no known amount of alcohol consumption is safe, then any little bit must be dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.

RELATED: 3 Ways Pregnancy Will Change Your Relationship With Your Husband

I, for one, am calling BS. I went on to drink a small glass of wine or two per week throughout my pregnancy once I got over the initial shock of it being unplanned.

Once I had adjusted to the fact that I was going to bring another baby into the world, I was still overwhelmed by the stress it brought on. I had suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of my son and we had decided not to have any more children.

I didn't want the risks or the horrible anxiety that came with pregnancy. Yet here I was, facing all that uncertainty again. Darn right I needed a drink.

I never felt guilty or like I was doing something wrong by having a small drink while I was pregnant. In fact, I'm pretty sure it did me and my baby a world of good to take a bit of the edge off.

The occasional drink helped keep my stress levels low — and ultimately it contributed to a healthier pregnancy for me.

I went into birth calm and confident, and never once worrying about the irrevocable damage I might have caused by my little weekly glass of cabernet. My baby turned out beautiful and healthy, just as I knew she would be.

I don't look back at my pregnancy and wish I had done things differently. I don't believe, in hindsight, that the CDC's recommendations would have changed my mind. If there were noted cases of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in women who drank moderately while pregnant, it would be a whole different story.

The risk simply wasn't there, so I stand by my choice — and so should you. Cheers to having agency over your own body.

RELATED: 6 Bizarre Things That Boost Your Chances Of Getting Pregnant
 
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However, the CDC is using the argument that because no known amount of alcohol consumption is safe, then any little bit must be dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.
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I bet you were for the vaccine mandate and mask wearing laws weren't you?
 
Tacitus Kilgore said:
Thankfully abortions are harder to get now so drunk feminist sluts can shit out more tards. That's what the world needs. Since they are going to be second hand drunken retards they will fall for feminist bullshit easier. Also more niggers. More niggers feminists and retards. The world is going to be a wonderful place.
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More fun for the farms.
 
Treasure Champs said:
Pregnancy is a pain in the ass. There's always some shitbird around to say "should you really be..." and the list is endless. No tuna in case there's mercury. No deli meat in case there's some disease in it. No caffeine. No painkillers. No junk food. No lifting. Any single thing you ask about, the answer is, "never been studied, so no, just in case". Apparently it's unethical to study these things in pregnant women and anyway no pregnant woman will volunteer to be studied to see if things damage her baby, who knew.

My general approach to most of these things is therefore, oh fuck off. But alcohol, smoking, and drugs are pretty much the holy trinity of Fucking Do Not.

Also, anyone who says they need to drink to "take the edge off" has a problem. If you need to numb yourself with alcohol to face daily life and you can't find another way to do it, you're self-medicating and you need to get help for whatever your actual issue is.
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There is actually a growing amount of evidence that caffeine and the most commonly recommended painkiller (Tylenol) should not be taken in pregnancy.

www.sciencedaily.com

Brain changed by caffeine in utero: New research finds caffeine consumed during pregnancy can change important brain pathways in baby

New research finds caffeine consumed during pregnancy can change important brain pathways that could lead to behavioral problems later in life. Researchers analyzed thousands of brain scans of nine and ten-year-olds, and revealed changes in the brain structure in children who were exposed to...
www.sciencedaily.com
www.nih.gov

NIH-funded study suggests acetaminophen exposure in pregnancy linked to higher risk of ADHD, autism

Researchers analyzed data from the Boston Birth Cohort.
www.nih.gov www.nih.gov

But I feel like drinking is really low hanging fruit. Really, you can't stop drinking for at least that first 12 weeks? Call it lent or whatever.
 
Treasure Champs said:
Pregnancy is a pain in the ass. There's always some shitbird around to say "should you really be..." and the list is endless. No tuna in case there's mercury. No deli meat in case there's some disease in it. No caffeine. No painkillers. No junk food. No lifting. Any single thing you ask about, the answer is, "never been studied, so no, just in case". Apparently it's unethical to study these things in pregnant women and anyway no pregnant woman will volunteer to be studied to see if things damage her baby, who knew.

My general approach to most of these things is therefore, oh fuck off. But alcohol, smoking, and drugs are pretty much the holy trinity of Fucking Do Not.

Also, anyone who says they need to drink to "take the edge off" has a problem. If you need to numb yourself with alcohol to face daily life and you can't find another way to do it, you're self-medicating and you need to get help for whatever your actual issue is.
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75-80% of alcoholism in the US is job related.

My neighbors were both drunks. The wife had to get a liver transplant. I saw her and thought she had cancer. But nope it was a liver transplant. She looked she was pregnant, but I guess that was just the extended abdomen from the liver failure. There was never a new baby around. Then a doctor told the husband that if he didn't quit drinking, he wouldn't see his kids anymore. They both have kids, and they are only in their mid to late 40's or so. I suspect the husband is a few years older than the wife. I do know they both had jobs. I think she worked some kind of inside job like at an office or something and the husband did some kind of blue-collar manual labor job. Anyway, he always losing his job. He went through like 3 of them. I think the wife stopped working for health reasons. From what I gather they were downing several bottles of vodka frequently.

There are a lot of people out there that are so miserable with life they need to get shitfaced to deal with it. American life isn't the healthiest for many reasons.
 
Speakeasy Electric said:
I don’t know, 1-2 small glasses of wine per week is probably literally fine, especially if you have food in your stomach. I personally would not but they literally do it in Europe all the time. Is it the most responsible thing? No, but fetal alcohol syndrome is usually from women who are binge drinking.
What I think is weird is how many pregnant women think smoking weed is somehow good for your baby (it’s not) or makes them smarter etc.
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Drinking a glass of wine while pregnant once a week literally is not fine. Any amount of alcohol consumption can lead to brain damage, even if that means just a couple of IQ points. I don't know why you would even risk it. Just don't drink for 9 months, it isn't that hard.
 
Probably the type of stronk, independent whammen who demanded 100% mask and vaccine compliance from everybody, too.
 
Look, there's no hard evidence that asbestos is bad for you. Millions of people had asbestos in their homes for decades and worked with it, and only a few died from mesothelioma, and the science that it is correlated with asbestos isn't proven. A lot of the anti-asbestos lobby is actually sexist and racist.

So I'm going to keep asbestos in my home, make my clothes out of it, and nobody is gonna tell me otherwise. After all, one thing is proven: it's safe and effective against fire.
 
I am the Muffin Maker said:
There is actually a growing amount of evidence that caffeine and the most commonly recommended painkiller (Tylenol) should not be taken in pregnancy.
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I'm not convinced about the ADHD. There are a bazillion kids now getting diagnosed with that and autism disorders, and you're telling me that a correlation with tylenol is it? Nah.

What a lot of people don't realize unless they've been pregnant or work with pregnant women is that 9 months is a damn long time to be miserable. It sounds easy on paper, but when you actually have to live 3/4 of a year feeling like shit it's not a cake walk to live a puritan lifestyle 24/7. Fetuses suck your energy, nutrients, and anything else they need to live out of your body, so you end up constantly exhausted and nauseated and aren't allowed to take anything to fix it.

Of course, every time you say that, some handmaiden of the patriarchy waltzes in with an April-Lauren smile and declares that pregnant was the absolute BEST SHE EVER FELT and it was an absolute joy and a privilege to give up everything except water, lean protein and salad for a beautiful new life, and how could you ever bear to sip some coffee knowing you were giving your child autism you SELFISH WHORE BAG????????????
 
Treasure Champs said:
I'm not convinced about the ADHD. There are a bazillion kids now getting diagnosed with that and autism disorders, and you're telling me that a correlation with tylenol is it? Nah.
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Nobody will ever want to admit it but 95%+ of those cases are just parents letting a screen (TV, tablet, smartphone, etc.) doing the parenting for them. Mommy needs her “me” time, go watch some YouTube videos on this tablet while she drinks wine and cruises Tinder for a hookup.
 
Male Idiot said:
Small amounts are propably not that huge a danger but why risk it?

Not doing substances for 9 months is a lesser pain than having a tard baby, even if the chance is low. Ask Barb.
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Exactly. Small amounts may not be but women who drink small amounts tend to just not have any during pregnancy because it’s no big deal to them to just not drink at all . I don’t drink much (couple of times a year at the most) and I just stopped entirely when I was trying to get pregnant, was pregnant and after (babies and booze don’t mix either.) the women I know who insist they had one unit once a week? Not one of them did, it was always far more than that, and more often.
Treasure Champs said:
Pregnancy is a pain in the ass. There's always some shitbird around to say "should you really be..." and the list is endless. No tuna in case there's mercury. No deli meat in case there's some disease in it. No caffeine. No painkillers. No junk food. No lifting. Any single thing you ask about, the answer is, "never been studied, so no, just in case". Apparently it's unethical to study these things in pregnant women and anyway no pregnant woman will volunteer to be studied to see if things damage her baby, who knew.

My general approach to most of these things is therefore, oh fuck off. But alcohol, smoking, and drugs are pretty much the holy trinity of Fucking Do Not.

Also, anyone who says they need to drink to "take the edge off" has a problem. If you need to numb yourself with alcohol to face daily life and you can't find another way to do it, you're self-medicating and you need to get help for whatever your actual issue is.
Click to expand...
Some of the stuff is just plain bizarre. No warm baths becasue getting too hot is bad (yet covid vaccines that give you a 42 c fever for two days, twice, YES!) no undercooked eggs, in a country that’s wiped out salmonella. No pink beef. There’s a lot of stuff you have to just use your judgement on. Warm baths were something I kept doing, but yeah, booze, drugs and fags are a huge no.
I am the Muffin Maker said:
There is actually a growing amount of evidence that caffeine and the most commonly recommended painkiller (Tylenol) should not be taken in pregnancy.

www.sciencedaily.com

Brain changed by caffeine in utero: New research finds caffeine consumed during pregnancy can change important brain pathways in baby

New research finds caffeine consumed during pregnancy can change important brain pathways that could lead to behavioral problems later in life. Researchers analyzed thousands of brain scans of nine and ten-year-olds, and revealed changes in the brain structure in children who were exposed to...
www.sciencedaily.com
www.nih.gov

NIH-funded study suggests acetaminophen exposure in pregnancy linked to higher risk of ADHD, autism

Researchers analyzed data from the Boston Birth Cohort.
www.nih.gov www.nih.gov

But I feel like drinking is really low hanging fruit. Really, you can't stop drinking for at least that first 12 weeks? Call it lent or whatever.
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Paracetamol I am convinced is bad especially for male foetuses. However again it’s a balance. If you’ve got a raging fever then taking some to bring it down may be better. I certainly wouldn’t take it regularly during pregnancy. Caffeine I think is the amount. A couple of squares of chocolate isn’t going to hurt you, three red bull and a load of coffee is best avoided.
 
Table Country said:
Do yoga or something if you're stressed you dipshit. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a real thing.
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IIRC, the median amount of alcohol consumed by the mothers of babies with FAS during pregnancy works out to about a fifth of vodka per day, so normal consumption ought to be OK. Obviously better to be safe than sorry, though.
 
Treasure Champs said:
Really? why?
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I think it causes developmental abnormalities. I don’t think it’s always safe for babies and children either, not just foetal stage. There’s some early, but what I consider fairly interesting, work in paracetamol and things like neurological/developmental/sexual development issues. It is, I think, an endocrine disruptor. It seems to interfere with some quite fundamental signalling pathways.
Let me find some stuff for you;
Ok here is a round up in nature;
Start there.
The paper I remember seeing that made me think it wasn’t so safe: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26254283/
Nothing I’ve read since has changed my mind that it’s totally safe.
I don’t give the kids paracetamol unless they’re running a high fever and it’s making them feel terrible.
Of course you can’t take ibuprofen either in pregnancy so pregnant women in pain are in a bind.
 
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