Alcohol during pregnancy: what you should know

Did you drink alcohol before you found out you were pregnant?

Are you worried because you, as a mother-to-be, have only just found out about the pregnancy and you could have harmed your baby with an excessive celebration in the first two weeks? Then we have good news for you: In the first two weeks of pregnancy, the “all or nothing principle” applies. If the pregnancy is not terminated prematurely during this period , the consumption of alcohol will not have harmed the fetus.

It only becomes serious when the period is missed, when the fertilized egg cell has docked to your blood system. A miscarriage would manifest itself as heavier or premature menstruation. But if this has not happened, you do not have to worry that your baby has been harmed. If you’re not sure, just talk to your gynecologist about it.

How does alcohol get to the baby during pregnancy?

The alcohol that the mother-to-be drinks during pregnancy enters the child’s bloodstream directly via the placenta. This way, your child gets a “tippy” in your belly much more easily than you. The growing child’s cells can therefore be more easily damaged by alcohol than your own. Alcohol during pregnancy damages the development of organs, the nervous system and the brain. Your baby’s heart, kidneys or sex organs may be deformed.

Which organs of the unborn baby can be damaged depends on its stage of development when the alcohol is consumed. There are times when, for example, the brain reacts very sensitively to pollutants and phases when the negative influence of pollutants is less. These developmental steps cannot be determined exactly, which is why you should avoid alcohol altogether during pregnancy. We have summarized here what exactly happens to your baby if you drink alcohol during pregnancy .

Is a non-alcoholic beer okay during pregnancy?

Yes, non-alcoholic beer during pregnancy is allowed. It does contain 0.5 percent alcohol, but that’s so little that you wouldn’t notice any effects on your body – even with an alcohol test, no alcohol could be measured. We have summarized even more on this topic in our article “Alcohol-free beer during pregnancy” .

What do doctors say about non-alcoholic beer during pregnancy?

Even doctors agree with non-alcoholic beer. Of course, it shouldn’t be the liquid you drink the most, but a beer without alcohol definitely doesn’t hurt.

Little scientific knowledge

Unfortunately, very little is known about the effects of alcohol during pregnancy and when it can cause harm and when not. The study by the Danish gynecologists and health researchers A. Skogerbø, U. Kesmodel, T. Wimberley, H. Støvring, J. Bertrand, N. Landrø and E. Mortensen, published in June 2012, indicates that there is no absolutely clear connection between moderate consumption of alcohol during pregnancy and long-term effects on the child.

The five-year-old children of around 1,600 women were tested. The result: The five-year-olds whose mothers did not drink alcohol were no different from their peers whose mothers had one to eight drinks a week, each containing 12 grams of pure alcohol, during pregnancy. These drinks correspond to about a 0.1 liter glass of wine. Neither loss of intelligence nor above-average attention deficits were detectable.

Avoid alcohol during pregnancy!

Nevertheless, one of the editors of the British gynecology journal “BJOG” warned that further studies are needed in which the development of the children can be observed over the long term. A lack of proof of effectiveness is no proof of the harmlessness of the alcohol. It should also not be forgotten that alcohol during pregnancy can be dangerous for the entire physical development of the child. The best recommendation is therefore not to drink at all. However, the study clearly showed that children whose mothers had nine or more small drinks per week in early pregnancy have a shorter attention span by the age of five.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS Syndrome)

Fetal alcohol syndrome, also known as FAS syndrome for short, describes prenatal malformations or damage in a baby that it got as a result of alcohol consumption by its pregnant mother. Here we list possible FAS symptoms and thus long-term consequences of alcohol consumption during pregnancy:

• A head circumference that is too small, or facial deformities such as small, slanting eye openings or a missing groove between the upper lip and nose
• heart defect
• underweight
• Alcohol-damaged children can develop mental or physical disabilities
• Learning difficulties, impaired fine motor skills, hyperactivity , sleep disorders and lability
• Damage to the central nervous system
• behavioral and cognitive disorders
• If organ development is complete by the time alcohol is consumed, physical malformations rarely occur. Then it can only come to external characteristics in the baby. Nevertheless, it is extremely important to know that although the symptoms are less severe in such cases, it is still a heavy burden for the child. Such a case is called Fetal Alcohol Effect , i.e. FAE Syndrome, instead of Fas Syndrome.

Unfortunately, more than 2,000 children with fetal alcohol syndrome are born in Germany every year. However, the Fas symptoms and disabilities are often not recognized immediately, so the number of unreported cases of babies with alcohol damage is much higher.

We have put together an overview of what you can eat and drink during pregnancy and what you should rather omit .