Drinking alcohol while you are pregnant is a debatable issue. Read this article to know the effects of drinking wine during pregnancy.
It is a well established fact that alcohol is detrimental to growing fetus. Women who do not give up alcohol during their pregnancy are likely to give birth to babies with low birth weight as well as with various other developmental disorders. Although, these physical, behavioral and developmental disorders are often associated with over consumption of alcohol, most health care practitioners advise their patients to abstain from alcohol, irrespective of the amount of alcohol.
However, there are still some people who support moderate consumption of alcohol during pregnancy and refute the general advise of abstaining from alcohol. Wine being an alcoholic beverage also undergoes strong scrutiny from both these groups. Read the various arguments regarding wine drinking whilst pregnant.
Is It Safe to Drink Wine While Pregnant
Alcoholic drinks are responsible for causing a condition known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. When a woman drinks alcohol, it gets broken down by her liver and enters the bloodstream. It crosses placenta and enters the body of baby. As fetal system is not developed well to break down alcohol, it may affect adversely. Although, the amount of alcohol reaching placenta is very low, continuous, excessive alcohol consumption can lead to several problems in a child.
Hyperactivity, mental retardation, speech problems, aggression, learning disability etc. are associated with over consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. As wine is an alcoholic beverage, it sure is capable of inducing all the above problems in a child. However, when you ask ‘can you drink non alcoholic wine while pregnant’, the answer is ‘yes’. The problem is with alcohol consumption and not with wine as such. Hence, you can sure drink non-alcoholic wine, just make sure it indeed is non-alcoholic and not ‘low alcoholic’.
How Much Wine Can You Drink While Pregnant
Drinking wine during pregnancy is safe only if you consume it in small amounts. Incidentally, drinking red wine while pregnant is believed to be beneficial. However, there is no medical evidence to support this fact. Hence, there is no reason to start drinking wine, if you do not drink it anyway. If you find it immensely difficult to abstain from wine during 9 months of pregnancy, you can drink wine in moderation. The problem is that, most women do not know how much is too much! They easily cross the fine line between moderation and over consumption and expose their fetuses to above mentioned risks.
The permitted quantity of wine during pregnancy is a small glass (125 ml), twice or thrice a week. Drinking about 2 – 3 glasses of wine or more at a time, results in over drinking and poses damage to developing fetus. Similarly, binge drinking, where you drink 4 – 5 different types of alcoholic drinks must be avoided during pregnancy under all circumstances.
Why You Should Not Drink While Pregnant
Proponents of wine drinking may slam all theories of fetal underdevelopment due to wine drinking and suggest that moderate drinking causes no harm to baby. However, one must understand that all the research regarding alcohol and pregnancy is based on studies done on a few women only. The results derived from such researches, surveys may or may not apply to you. Although, you might know of women who drank heavily all through their pregnancy and yet delivered perfectly healthy children, you can never be sure that the same will happen to you. In any case, you never want to put your baby at risk, if you are not sure of something.
Most women will readily give up alcohol for nine months for the sake of their babies. Always remember, if you cannot overcome your temptation of drinking you might force your child into living whole of her lifetime suffering from any of the above incurable conditions. If alcohol still gets the better of you, you can at least make efforts to keep it to bare minimum.
