Drink During Pregnancy

It is not at all safe to take alcohol while you are pregnant. Alcohol and pregnancy don't mix. There is no way to know how much alcohol is safe during pregnancy. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy could pose a long-term risk to your developing baby, and the more you drink, the higher are the risks. In first trimester you have to strictly avoid alcohol in order to avoid miscarriage. Drinking at this time has also been associated with a higher rate of premature birth. It’s safest not to drink alcohol at all during pregnancy. However, if you do decide to drink while you're pregnant, limit it to one or two units of alcohol, no more than once or twice a week, and never enough to get drunk.

Although throughout the United States activist and educational campaigns have flooded U.S citizens with education on the detrimental effects of maternal alcohol consumption, women are still continuing to consume alcohol while pregnant. Fifty three percent of non-pregnant woman drink alcohol, and despite health warnings, twelve percent of pregnant mothers in the United States still consume alcohol (Pruett &Waterman & Caughey, 2013, p. 62). Fetal alcohol exposure is also believed to be widely underreported in the United States (Pruett et al., 2013, p. 66). Current research concludes that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, nor a safe time during gestation for alcohol consumption to take place (National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome [NOFAS], 2014). Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term used for the various conditions that maternal alcohol consumption causes. Although each case of FASD can present differently, cognitive disabilities, facial deformities, and growth retention are a few of the hallmark adverse effects that alcohol has when it enters fetal circulation (Paley & O’Connor, 2011, p. 64). The United States is impacted economically by these debilitating conditions as well, as it costs our nation $746 million dollars annually to care for these children (Bhuvaneswar, Chang, Epstein & Stern, 2007, p. 3). Nurses in America, and across the globe have a key role in helping to eliminate, and minimize adverse effects of these conditions

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a concise, uniform definition for conditions caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. FASD is a broad term used to describe the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy (Caley, Kramer, & Robinson, 2005). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder can also cause growth retardation, birth defectscomma and deficits in cognitive, languagecomma and motor development (Coles et al., 2015). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a teratogenic effect, which is caused by daily, chronic, heavy and frequent alcohol use while in utero. Chances of an infant diagnosed with FASD are 0.5 to 3 in 1,000 live births (Cone-Wesson, 2005). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder has many different diagnoses. There is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (PFAS)comma and alcohol-related neuro-developmental disorder (ARND)comma all under the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder umbrella (Brown et al., 2015). Maternal alcohol use is correlated to the timing, frequencycomma and quantity of the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Drinking during the first trimester may not be as detrimental as drinking during the second or third trimester. The frequency of alcohol consumed is also a key factor in FASD, such as how often per day drinks are consumed, the quantity of alcohol consumed, and how many glasses or cans per day the mother consumes

The quality of life for these children is unfortunately not the best. They can have limb, facial, and organ defects, and will have stunted physical growth throughout young adult life. Prenatal exposure can also have a negative effect on motor skills, especially fine motor tasks such as writing and balancing. The disabilities depend on the mother and her drinking habits. The children of heavy drinkers while pregnant, have many more developmental problems than of those whose mother was a light drinker. The most common problems among these children with alcohol exposure are with balance, coordination, and how they are able to play and handle a ball.

As a result of pregnant women drinking, there have been a profuse amount of children born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Armstrong and Abel confirm that it wasn’t until 1973

National surveys show that about six out of every ten women of child-bearing age 18-44 years old use alcohol, and slightly less than one-third of women who drink alcohol in this age group binge drink. Excessive exposure to alcohol during pregnancy can inflict serious, permanent physical and mental damage on her child like Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorders (FASDS), Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), miscarriage, and premature birth. Although men are more likely to drink alcohol, and drink in larger amounts, gender differences in body structure and chemistry cause women to absorb more alcohol, and take longer to break it down and remove it from their bodies. Upon drinking equal amounts, women have higher alcohol levels in their blood than men, and

The fetus is not the only one harmed by alcohol consumption during pregnancy, but the mother is as well. In fact, many doctors urge women who think they are pregnant or are trying to get pregnant to stop drinking (“Fetal Alcohol”). “One percent of all mothers consume fourteen or more drinks per week during the three months before pregnancy” (Walsh 3). To the average person one percent is not too large of a proportion. However, the volume of alcohol consumed is high during

The use of illicit drugs and abuse of alcohol exact a steep price from our society. Substance abuse is a factor in many serious ills such as crime. More upsetting, however, is the affects that it has on children born affected from their dependent mothers. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 60 percent of women of childbearing age consume alcoholic beverages despite the fact that alcohol consumption during pregnancy is implicated in a wide range of birth defects and developmental disabilities, including mental retardation, physical abnormalities, and visual and auditory impairments. (Nevitt, 1996)

As stated earlier, alcohol has its greatest effect on the developing embryo during the first trimester of pregnancy with its teratogenic effect causing mental retardation as well as characteristic craniofacial abnormalities that are characteristic of the disease. It has also been demonstrated with experimental animal models that there is a clear "dose-response" effect between the amount of alcohol consumed by the mother and the risk that is associated with developing FAS symptoms (Walpole, p. 875). It has been proposed by Walpole and associates that there are various degrees to which the fetus An be effected. Walpole uses the term "fetal alcohol syndrome" to refer to serious effects due to heavy maternal drinking and "fetal alcohol effect" to refer to those effects thought to occur with lower maternal alcohol intake (Walpole, p. 875). Regardless of the degree to which

Alcohol, even at small portions, have a great effect on an infant. Toddlers become uncontrollable and hostile towards parents due to the consumption of liquor. In particular, mothers who drank while pregnant have increased the risk of having a daughter who has a mental illness. Drinking during pregnancy causes impairment to vital organs and causes permanent health problems to the soon to be born

Even though there are many studies that highlight the damaging effects of maternal alcohol use on a fetus in utero, there are a multitude of other substances that are used by pregnant mothers that have similar and even, in some cases, more extreme repercussions such as marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. When speaking about pregnancy and drug use, the most common drug that comes to mind is alcohol. During 12 years of schooling, most people are exposed, at one point or another, to the idea of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the detrimental effects of alcohol on a fetus in utero. The effects of maternal use of the aforementioned illicit drugs is less studied, partially because they are used less frequently. It is important, however, that as a population, we become more educated about these drugs and the potentially life threatening outcomes for babies in utero.

Behavioral malformations can include attention deficit or hyperactivity, as well as impaired adaptive behavior, social skills, and social communication.2 A range of affected behavior is evident, with any degree of general impairment possible in intelligence, reflex development, motor coordination, and hyperactivity of muscle.1 Core deficits that are found in a majority of cases of prenatal alcohol exposure include deficits in attention, learning, memory, emotional dysregulation, and executive functioning, which

Drinking can also cause the baby to be born with certain features that are different from a non-alcoholic pregnant woman such as being skinny and the head size being smaller than

Even a small amount of alcohol has the potential to hurt the child. The unborn child of a person who occasionally drinks is at risk of receiving fetal alcohol effects. This condition causes children to receive some of the same of the same effects that come from fetal alcohol syndrome. A child may not receive any of these conditions due to a mother’s alcohol consumption, but there are still some potential effects. Evidence shows that when a pregnant mother consumes an average of two alcoholic beverages per day, her child may have a lower amount of intelligence and is also at risk for having mental retardation. Also, there is research that suggests that even low quantities of alcohol consumed during pregnancy can have contrary effects on the child’s behavioral and psychological functions, and can cause a child to exhibit behaviors such as hyperactivity, unusual nervousness or anxiety, and poor impulse control. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can also cause children to have less accuracy in their spatial and visual reasoning later in their lives. Due to these results, Sarah should be advised to not drink alcohol while she is

Some of the secondary disabilities included mental illness, anti-social behaviors, and attention deficit disorders including, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. According to the study it was concluded that children of binge drinking mothers exhibited especially severe cognitive and behavioral deficits. Although, some of the studies reviewed had vague definitions of binge drinking, potential recall and reporting biases. As you can see here binge drinking while pregnant is not only not healthy to the developing fetus, but it will cause many developmental problems for the future.