Alcohol Use in Pregnancy

By: Bradley G. Goldberg, M.D.

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is not something that I would recommend, in any amount or at any time.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that there is no safe amount of alcohol that can be consumed during pregnancy.

There is a birth defect known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS, which can affect the babies of women who drink during their pregnancy. Although most cases of FAS occur when a woman is drinking large amounts of alcohol on a regular basis, I would remind you that there is no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy.

Another concern that patients sometimes have is in regards to alcohol they may have consumed early in pregnancy before a woman was aware that they were pregnant.

I counsel these patients that as long as it was a single occurrence, there will not likely be any harm to the developing embryo/baby. In the very first 1 to 2 weeks of the gestation, the developing cells are “totipotent” meaning that any one cell could itself develop into a full-grown baby.

Because of this, any insult to the early gestation such as alcohol, X-rays, or other toxins will tend to either result in complete miscarriage or will not affect the pregnancy at all. This is appropriately known as the “all-or-none” effect. It means that if an early pregnancy continues after such an exposure there is little chance a birth defect would result.
 

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