Alocohol & Pregnancy

Surely you have heard that it is unsafe to drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy, but you may be wondering why. There are a plethora of reasons not to drink when you are pregnant, and there is not a single reason why you should drink while you are pregnant. If you have a drinking problem and you are pregnant, you owe it to the health and safety of your unborn baby to abstain from alcohol consumption for the entire gestation period. There is no excuse for even the smallest amount of liquor to pass through your lips, and once you hear what the ramifications could be, you will understand why that is so vitally important. From physical defects to mental retardation, a woman who drinks alcohol during pregnancy is putting the developing fetus inside of her at dangerously high risk for damage.

The outcome of drinking during pregnancy can be that the baby is born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). The implications of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome on the newborn baby include a gamut of physical and mental defects, and these defects are not temporary; they are permanent, lifelong afflictions. A woman who drinks during her pregnancy is accepting a fate for her child that could potentially include debilitating neurological damage. Her child is also likely to have the physical malformations that are commonly associated with babies born with FAS, including narrow eyes, a low nasal bridge, a thin upper lip, and a short upturned nose. Her baby will also not only be born underweight and shorter than a normal infant, but also the baby's head is likely to be smaller than it should be. This stunted development is not a phase either; babies born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome will never catch up with the normal patterns of growth.

Some women relax under the misconception that it is okay to consume some alcohol during pregnancy, just so long as they do not get wasted drunk on a daily basis. This belief is categorically wrong. Pregnant women should have absolutely zero alcohol - not one glass of wine at a party, not a few drinks after a long day's work - nothing. There is not a single situation that warrants drinking during pregnancy. When a pregnant woman has one drink, her unborn child also has one drink. When a pregnant woman downs half a bottle of vodka, her fetus also downs half a bottle of vodka. There is no dilution process that occurs before the alcohol passes through the placenta. The alcohol is quickly absorbed into the blood stream once a beverage is consumed. Until the alcohol is broken down by the liver, it is circulating through the blood stream. It can take an hour or more for the liver to break down the alcohol, and so there is plenty of time for the alcohol to attack the baby. Think about it: if a five-foot-tall grown woman weighing one-hundred pounds can get buzzed off of two beers, how do you think a fetus will do under the same conditions?

While it has been suspected for centuries that alcohol was damaging to a developing fetus, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was not formally discovered until 1968. There is an abundance of documented evidence that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that pregnant women who consume alcohol are putting their unborn children at a very high risk for birth defects and even mental retardation. You will never forgive yourself if you are responsible for ruining your child's entire future and wellbeing, so if you are pregnant, be healthy and responsible: don't drink.