A new British study suggests that mothers who are pregnant with boys and indulge in a bit of light drinking end up having better-behaved little guys at age three than women who abstain from drinking during pregnancy.
I couldn’t do it, simply because I’d feel guilty. I feel guilty if I eat a deli turkey sandwich. Going to Subway for a sandwich seems scandalous and subversive—I may as well rob a bank and spend the money at a dive Vegas casino. Knocking back a mojito or even a small glass of wine would make me want to crawl across jagged glass in penance.
During my first pregnancy, I had a lot of trouble with false labor and sleeping during the last few weeks. My doctor told me to have a glass of wine before bed. It would be fine.
Did I? No. I wouldn’t even eat chocolate during that pregnancy because of the caffeine. American pregnancy police have done an excellent job making sure pregnant women are paranoid about the dangers around every corner.
I have recovered from my fear of chocolate, as evidenced by the brown beard around my mouth and the content look on my face. I am supported by this study: Chocolate in pregnancy keeps baby happy. Who am I to say I don’t want a happy baby?
I am adopting the same idea while nursing, too. Love chocolate!
Steph
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I’ve been lurking and have to comment. As the adoptive mother of 6 children who suffer from FASD, thank you for not listening to your doctor and drinking. Even one drink at the wrong time can cause damage to that baby beyond belief. It’s not the doctor who has to deal with the damage….it will be the child and you. Bes
Pregnant women aren’t supposed to eat turkey sandwiches? Huh. I didn’t follow that one. Or the chocolate one. Or the tuna one. Or, as I think about, any food restrictions (except swordfish, which I’ve never eaten anyway). I did keep away from alcohol and caffeine–and chicken and fast food–the latter two because of food aversions.
I have a family member who has a little wine when she’s pregnant, and I’m always a bit horrified although I know that lots of studies show that a sip of wine isn’t going to hurt the baby. I couldn’t do it though.
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I did succumb to coffee drinking during my last pregnancy (one a day). Partly because caffeine studies have shown it takes roughly 10 cups a day to do any harm, but mostly due to the severe caffeine headaches I was suffering from. I couldn’t do ANY alcohol though. I completely agree with you the guilt would be far too much and any ‘relaxation’ would have been negated by my worry.
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I have hyperemesis during pregnancy and I tell ya — last pg I ate dark chocolate and it helped!
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Excellent news. Especially since I am 32 weeks preggo with boy number 2! I have too many friends who have given birth in Europe to totally buy the absolute policy on alcohol. Obviously the studies cannot be done on the amount that is safe, and ANYTHING that is toxic at all is, at best, not great for the baby. (And that includes antibiotics, other meds, certain herbs, caffeine, nicotine, etc….)
But, I figure, once into my third trimester, a half of a glass of wine once every two weeks or so isn’t going to hurt any more than the massive amounts of chocolate I eat.
Woot!
(Not to dismiss the concerns about FAS, which a very real and scary.)
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It wasn’t until my 5th pregnancy that heard the warnings about processed lunchmeat and tuna. It freaked me out for several weeks and then I said to heck with it. Alcohol, though? Even if my religion didn’t forbid it for members in general, I don’t think I’d play those odds.
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I’m with you- if the alcohol didn’t do anything, my stress/guilt/ anxiety would. And my calm, rational husband would FLIP out! Oh how I miss deli meat! (26 wks) It’s crazy how much I will crave a turkey avocado sandwich!
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A lady at the church we used to go to had very happy babies. I asked her what her secret was and she told me, “Lots of chocolate.” She also gained 60 pounds plus with each pregnancy. I didn’t want that, but I did eat chocolate!
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so I never had a sip of a drink while I was prego or deli meat or soft cheeses, and list goes on, so we will see how my little man turns out at age 3. But what I did do was recommended by my great-grandmom and past down to all the nursing women in our family – one beer everyday at 3:00 PM and your baby will sleep through the night! I did it, well maybe not everyday, but most and my little man slept 6-7 or more hours from 2 weeks on…
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Isn’t it great living in a world where you can find a “scientific study” to either endorse or condemn any particular behavior?
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LOL, are they really better behaved or are the mother’s indulging even more by then and don’t notice the behavior?
I’m glad I’m not going through pregnancy today. The “experts” have declared way too many foods off as dangerous.
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there is a new study too, that says caffiene during pregnancy even a cup of coffe a day will raise the possiblity of women haveing low weight babies.
The chocolate, I cunsumed didn’t give me those results. I ate LOTS of chocolate….guess it doesn’t have enough caffiene. My babies weren’t really small….9lb 5oz (41wks), 7lb 11oz (38wks), 7lb 13oz (37wks), 7lb 11oz (36wks) and then my teeny one (39wks) 7lb 9oz.
I think the “studies” are full of it. Time to study something else! LOL!
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My indulgence was corn-dogs with mayo! Now I know thats not as bad as alcohol but really doesn’t that sound nasty!
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Well, that explains my two boys behaviour! Right?! I mean since I didn’t indulge in wine.
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Interesting. With Peter, I toed the line — no alcohol, no caffeine, etc. With Jacob, I didn’t know I was pregnant until I was 7 or 8 weeks along, so I had several glasses of wine without knowing I was pregnant. He was by far the better behaved child at age 3 (and still is at age 5!).
But I really think it has more to do with their innate personalities and perhaps their birth order than anything to do with what I did or didn’t drink.
My doctor, who has always been amazingly pragmatic, told me that one drink was OK — but — nothing in the first trimester (which means 13 weeks, not 12), never more than one drink, and never two days in a row. And, a cup of coffee was just fine too.