During pregnancy, you may need to break some of your normal habits. For example, alcohol use is one of the habits that should be abandoned. Alcohol has strong teratogenic (anomalous and harmful effects on the baby) effects. Regardless of how you consume alcohol, more or less, alcohol consumed during pregnancy will harm your baby’s health, regardless of the amount.
Pregnancy and Alcohol Use
Although some expectant mothers think that a few glasses of alcohol every now and then is not harmful, I strongly recommend that you stop drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Because alcohol is a teratogenic substance that can easily cross the placenta and harm the fetus, its consumption during this period can lead to very bad consequences. Alcohol you consume while pregnant can cause miscarriage, stillbirths and developmental delay in the baby. Mental retardation or developmental defects of the head and face can also occur. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), the syndrome that develops when a baby is exposed to alcohol in the womb, can lead to many different syndromes, from learning problems to various congenital abnormalities.
The toxic effects of alcohol on the fetus can also cause problems in the baby after birth, such as learning disabilities, speech difficulties, attention deficit or hyperactivity. For all this to happen, it is enough to drink 1 or 2 glasses of alcohol a day regularly during pregnancy.
Advice for Expectant Mothers Who Drink Alcohol
Considering the negative effects of alcohol on the baby, the ideal recommendation is not to drink alcohol at all during pregnancy. Sometimes the environment or events such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings or events may require alcohol consumption. Although it is thought that a glass of wine, a sip or two of champagne or a small beer at such times will not harm, alcohol should not be consumed in these special situations, considering that the amount of alcohol is directly proportional to the harm it will cause to the baby.
If you are already an alcohol drinker and you have consumed alcohol before you found out that you are pregnant, you should not panic and you should stop drinking alcohol for the rest of this period and you should talk to your doctor as soon as possible and tell him about this issue. However, you can avoid all these troublesome processes by stopping alcohol consumption from the moment you decide to have a baby and you can go through your pregnancy with peace of mind.
