Alcohol during pregnancy: how much is too much?

Alcohol During Pregnancy – How Much is Too Much is a guest post by Kate Tunstall at The Less-Refined Mind.

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy – this may just be the hardest post I’ve ever written. I’ve been trying to figure out why.

Here’s my conclusion: because it’s a subject I feel very strongly about – but perhaps not in the way you might imagine. Having composed the post in my usual way yet finding myself entirely discontented with it, I’m now starting over…

Alcohol During Pregnancy – How Much is Too Much?

I once wrote a post titled ‘Should You Get Married?’ which looks at some really crucial questions you should ask yourself before making that lifelong (hopefully!) commitment. Of paramount importance, I said, is the big stuff – your values must align if you’re to have any hope of going the long haul as a couple. I can’t begin to contemplate how you’d maintain a relationship in any other scenario. I’d suggest it would be an impossibility.

So imagine, for example, that you and your significant other disagree about the volume of alcohol which is safe for consumption during pregnancy. Bit of a biggie, huh? But – naturally – something you’d need to settle. Particularly if you were already carrying said partner’s baby. It’s definitely not a subject you could simply agree to disagree on; you’d have to accept that his (or her) feelings came from a place of deep concern – even if you felt they were unwarranted.

I’ll be frank – I enjoy a tipple. Even – or perhaps especially – after beating my demons, the occasional glass of Merlot with dinner is very welcome.

Of course, with children comes change: we must be responsible – if not for our own sake’s then for theirs. So when I fell pregnant with Pixie I barely touched a drop. I enjoyed a sip on two separate occasions – at family weddings to toast the happy couples. And that was all.

While I was breastfeeding I found it quite frustrating that still I was unable to drink even a tiny amount without expressing – according to many guidelines. But I was more frustrated at the conflicting information I found when researching the topic – so much so that I researched and researched until I was satisfied I’d finally found the truth. And then I wrote about it.

That post has become one of my most successful to date.

I established that the guidelines about breastfeeding and alcohol are often misleading in terms of studies and data and giving responsibility to parents. I’m currently pregnant for the second time, so what do I now feel about alcohol during pregnancy?

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