JJJ

Wine is part of daily live in Europe. Do pregnant women stop drinking when they conceive as women in the US do?

xxx

Isn't that just a fairly recent US trend? I mean - did the baby boomers' mothers stop smoking and drinking (drinking coffee, even)?

Mom

I don't think stopping drinking alcohol for pregnany is a recent trend. As far as I know baby boomers including me did just that. However, the stoppage of caffeine and cigarettes ar all within the last 10-15 years. It is not until this time that the risks of these were known. However, when I had my daughter back in 1971 (I was born in 1950 so yes I am a baby boomer) the risks of fetal Alcohol syndrome were known and I knew almost no one who drank during pregnancy!

Florence

We European women are aware of the dangers of alcohol and cigarette during pregnancy, and most women will stop drinking and smoking altogether during that time. The occasionnal (1-2 a week) glass of wine during a meal is considered safe, as is a moderate consumption of coffee (1-2 cups/day). This was recently confirmed to me by the director of the clinical pharmacology and toxicology unit in Geneva University Hospital, as I was asking whether I should stock some decaf for one of our senior doctor who just became pregnant ...

Diane

Another boomer here, and I know I was careful about caffeine and drank no hard liquor when pregnant with my children ('77 and '81). I may have had a glass of wine or a beer a couple of times, but way less frequently than someone might even consider "in moderation." I remember being surprised when, as a nursing mother, my pediatrician suggested that a glass of red wine with my husband over a meal while the baby was sleeping certainly wouldn't cause any harm. But then he was not only wonderful as a doctor but as a trusted advisor regarding overall family life adjustments! Just because Europeans generally drink wine with their meals doesn't mean they finish off a bottle at each meal. And I suspect European women are as careful as US women when they are pregnant

Capo

Please excuse my naiveté, but it is recommended for women to abstain 100% from alcohol during pregnancy? Thanks!

Kim

I had my beautiful son back in 1999 and I will tell you what my doctor told me. Abstain from alcohol basically. He said a little consumption would not kill me (or the baby) but it was not encouraged. By the way his definition of moderate consumption was one glass of wine a month (not a week!) As far as cigarettes go, he told me NO SMOKING and that I should try to stay away from secondhand smoke as well. Not a problem for me as the mere scent of smoke on someone's clothes gave me terrible "morning sickness" all through pregnancy. As far as coffee goes, he was not as strict as alcohol and said 1 serving a week or less shouldn't hurt me. (That includes not only coffee, but also tea and cokes. One caffeinated beverage period!) I stuck to these guidelines and in fat can only remember one time in the 9 months when I had alcohol, that was a glass of champagne at my cousin's wedding. Talking to other mommies, these seem to be the common guidelines today and my doctor was certainly not considered overly strict.

dontworry

Europe has a much more relaxed view of pregnancy. <BR><BR>I find that the US views are very rigid (no alcohol, no drugs (even if the mother is suffering through allergies, colds, flu, etc.), no spicy food, no caffeine, no salt, no ANYTHING! If the US mds had their way, women of childbearing years would have to sustain themselves on gruel and water (but not tap water!).<BR><BR>I think it's time to remind pregnant women that the generations before us did not give birth to a vast majority of horribly handicapped children -- and these women before us smoked, drank, enjoyed spicy foods and took aspirin. <BR><BR>I think it's just a matter of being reasonable -- if you can give it up without a struggle, do so. If you can't, do it in moderation. <BR><BR>And all this talk of breastfeeding building immunity to allergies -- poppycock! My sister and I are highly allergic, and both of us were breastfed!<BR>There goes that theory.<BR><BR>There are no guarantees -- you can do everything "right" and still have a child who is not "perfect" and do things "wrong" and have a baby that is fine. <BR><BR>Just relax and use common sense.

xxx

Mom and Diane - I don't think you read my post correctly. I know everyone who had kids in the US in the last 20 - 30 years quit smoking, drinking alcohol and caffeine, etc. - but my post read "baby boomers' mothers"..... I know my mom and aunts had babies in the 50's and didn't blink about smoking and drinking coffeee or a cocktail. I don't disagree that those things can be bad for babies - but were there that many more problems with babies before all this was deemed bad for babies than there was after anyone knew better?

Lucinda

My Mom dipped snuff (a lot) and drank coffee all day through seven babies back in the 30's, 40's and 50's, and not one deformity or mental handicap in the bunch! (Here in U.S. in N.C.) And she always had headaches, and took aspirin! (All those kids!) Now I'm not recommending any of those vices, and would do everything today that the U.S. docs tell us too, but I'm not so sure it isn't overblown (or maybe my Mom was just lucky?)

Ann Williams

Early pregnancy is when all the neurological developement takes place. If you drink alcohol at this time, you can interrupt that process. Would any woman want to take that risk be they Europeans or North Americans? <BR>Also studies now show that there is a link between smoking during pregnancy and SIDS death. Again why play Russian Roulette with your baby's health???

AnnaC

I've never been pregnant myself so I can't speak from personal experience, but I do know something from friends' experiences. Smoking during pregnancy is severely frowned upon in the UK (and I'm sure everywhere else), and anyone I know who smoked gave it up as soon as they started trying for a baby - or as soon as they knew they were pregnant.<BR><BR>As for drinking - I believe that my friends were all advised to refrain from drinking in the early stages, but after that, 1-2 glasses of wine a week does no harm. It is in fact believed that a small amount of wine has a beneficial effect on everyone, including pregnant mothers and clearly the health of the mother has an impact on the health of the baby.<BR><BR>All of my friends followed this advice and all their babies have been, and are, very healthy.

notbuying

Well now, there are links between women and their sons' baldness, women and prostate cancer (it's not *ahem* whether or not the equipment is used, it's HOW), women and their children's being gay, women now determine the sex of the baby, blah blah blah. <BR><BR>All I'm saying is that there are links, but are they links like the ones that say diet soda is linked to cancer (you know the one, where a rat has to drink the rat equivelent of 4000 glasses of diet soda each day for 6 years?) or are they links like they "believe" that it causes cancer (you know this one too -- eat tons of bran. What? Oops? It DOESN'T help?)<BR><BR>If alcohol in the early stages of pregnancy (before you even know you're pregnant) can be harmful, then all women of child bearing age must abstain from alcohol? <BR><BR>There are no guarantees in life. None at all. I know 3 families that have been touched by tragedy as far as having children goes -- and EACH woman abstained from alcohol, didn't smoke, didn't eat spicy food, took no drugs and breastfed. And for their second pregnancies, they were much more relaxed and the children they had next are fine.<BR><BR>I'm sure none of the posters, including myself, are recommending that a mother go on a bender a week, smoke 3 packs of cigarettes a day, eat Mexican food 7 nights a week and drink a pot of coffee twice a day (to be interrupted only by a 2 liter bottle of soda). <BR><BR>It's called moderation, being reasonable, and being a HUMAN BEING.

sarah

the most dangerous period is during the first ten weeks anyway- the period that most women do not know they are pregnant<BR>and carry on with their normal lives. plenty of women have partaken of alcohol, nicotine and perscribed drugs during this period and go on to deliver healthy babies. I am not saying these things are good for you, but you do tend to be a little obsessed in the states. It is far better for a mother to have a glass of wine and be relaxed- then to abstain and suffer from stress- stress is one of the biggest causes of problems during pregnancy.

Diane

Regarding boomer's mothers -- I was wild child in comparison to my mother, who came from a farming community in Nebraska. Thinking back on my aunt, other relatives, and our neighbors during my growing-up years (in Midwest metropolitan areas around Cleveland and Chicago) life was a lot simpler and I think commonsense is something that was in great abundance. (Not that it isn't in years since, it obviously was passed along to future generations somehow -- and I doubt that it is a genetic trait.)<BR>Perhaps paranoia about being perfect has grown faster since then, however.

Capo

I've been discussing this with my girlfriend, who just graduated from naturopathic medical school a week ago. Specifically, I asked her what the most crucial time was to abstain from alcohol -- assuming that it would be during the earliest period of pregnancy -- and she confirmed that. But then I wondered, if a woman doesn't even know she's pregnant until 3-4 weeks have gone by, how would she know whether or not to abstain from alcohol during these first 3-4 weeks? Well, this morning she showed me a passage in one of her books, "Human Embryology" by William J. Larsen which says...<BR><BR>"Few women are fully aware that, although it is important to avoid alcohol throughout pregnancy, it is *crucial* to abstain from drinking during the early weeks following any act of intercourse that might have resulted in pregnancy -- whether or not the woman knows herself to be pregnant."<BR><BR>So, this seems to be taking it even a step further, recommending not only abstaining from alcohol while you're pregnant, but also abstaining from alcohol even during that period where you suspect there's a chance you *could* be pregnant. Very interesting.

sarah

so this means that a woman with a 'normal' sex life of child bearing age should only drink alcohol aroun 3 days a month just in case! Is that what you are trying to say?

Kathy

I can only speak from my experience -- I was pregnant 75-76, just before the ban on alcohol for pregnant women was recommended. I drank wine in moderation, with meals, probably a couple of glasses, many nights. I was overcome with guilt when alcohol consumption was linked to problems with the baby. My "baby" is now a healthy, 4th-year medical student, so it's hard to believe that the wine hurt her brain development or anything else I can identify. With my second pregnancy, 78-79, I abstained from alcohol, drank tonic &amp; lime as a social drink. In about my 9th month of pregnancy I read that pregnant women shouldn't drink tonic, because it contains quinine, which can cause deafness in a baby -- go figure!!! Luckily, my son is perfectly healthy, athough I don't think he would have been LESS healthy if I had wine occassionally!

Dr. Mom

While women in the 50's who did smoke and drink constantly may not have had a substantially higher rate of birth defects they DEFINITELY had a higher rate of problems such as miscarriage and deaths in small children. This is a FACT. I also know that if you are of the age and even beginning to think about trying to get pregnant. Dr.s these days encourage quitting these health hazards at least 3 months prior to trying!

Capo

Sarah, I'm not a medical person; I'm just relaying what was written in my girlfriend's "Human Embryology" book. <BR><BR>Dr. Mom wrote, "Dr.s these days encourage quitting these health hazards at least 3 months prior to trying!" If that's true, that seems to be an even more conservative philosophy than espoused in the embryology book. <BR><BR>The way I see it, as with so many things in life, whether one wants to play it very conservative or not all depends on what level of risk one is willing to accept. <BR><BR>