During pregnancy, the body does most women a favor by altering their sense of taste so that alcohol seems repugnant. Women who aren’t lucky enough to have that sensory assist need to just make a conscious decision not to drink alcohol.
Every person – including, apparently, every fetus – reacts differently to alcohol, but there’s overwhelming evidence to support giving up alcohol during pregnancy. Studies show that even a tiny amount can be dangerous to the unborn baby.
If you do continue to consume alcohol, it’s important to consider how far along you are. Excessive consumption of alcohol has especially bad consequences during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, during which the baby’s organs are forming.
Women who continue to drink regularly also have a significantly higher risk of miscarriage. And even before you’re pregnant, alcohol consumption can have a demonstrably negative effect: Men and women who drink a lot have lower fertility rates.
What Happens If You Do Drink During Pregnancy?
If a mother-to-be drinks excessively during the first weeks of pregnancy (or throughout the pregnancy), her baby may be born with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Up to 40,000 babies are born with FASD in the U.S. each year.
Adolescent children whose mothers drank during pregnancy can display delayed mental development and lower intelligence, small heads, diminished growth, hyperactivity, impaired fine motor skills and sleep disturbances.
What If You Drank Before You Knew You Were Pregnant?
Many, many women have confessed to their OBs that they drank a little (or a lot) before realizing they were pregnant. After a positive pregnancy test, they’re now quite worried. By the time you’ve missed a period, though, you’ve begun the third week of pregnancy, the time it’s most crucial to be most diligent about alcohol consumption.
Chances are, there are no ill effects from your early indulgence. If you drank a lot of alcohol shortly after your egg was fertilized and implanted (the first weeks of pregnancy), the fertilized egg was either expelled during heavy menstrual bleeding (actually a very early miscarriage) or survived unharmed. If your doctor says everything’s OK because you’re still pregnant, it’s the truth.