Question by C. Mckay: Binge drinking during pregnancy – i should have an abortion?
(by the way i’m not religious, i’m a rationalist) Binge drank in early pregnancy – i think i should have a termination?
Panic. I binge drank when i didn’t know i was 26 days pregant, i should have guessed as i kept having funny dreams about being pregnant… i was about 4 and a half weeks i guess, the most vital stage for brain and facial feature development. i maybe had 4 shots of bacardi (it could have been 5 as i don’t know how big the measure my boyfriend poured me was) in about an hour! On a full stomach but i felt quite eurphoric and definitly intoxicated and detached for quite a few hours. I got a hang over and felt nauseous and dizzy well into the early hours. I’m so awfully sorry that this has happened. My boyfriend wants me to have a termination and i think i have to agree, we are both phd students and i’m afraid i couldn’t bare to have a retarded child – he has no alcohol tolerance although i can drink like a fish so it is genetically possibly vulnerable. (it was unplanned by the way) after we read this:
“If a woman binge drinks during such a critical stage, significant harm may be inflicted on the developing fetal brain. The resulting deficits can range from gross structural abnormalities, such as small brain size and significantly altered brain circuitry. Children exposed to even a single binge drinking episode (blood alcohol levels over 0.07 or 80mg) show behavioural difficulties such as in adhd (poor attention and impulse control), have on average 7 points lower iq than controls (sometimes up to 24 points) and perform far less well on verbal and numeric reasoning tests at age 7 and 14. Before age of 7 and 14 their learning disabilites are not evident, but their peers soon surpass them.
I guess i just want to know i’m doing the right thing in having a termination, i want to know peoples stories.
I felt pretty drunk, and i felt nausea afterward (my symptoms lasted from 8.30 until 2.30 in the morning), my blood alcohol level must have been at least 0.09, enough to cause the death of a third of the fetal brain cells – which cannot regenerate. Thus i do think i’m fairly screwed. My mother drank like a fish with me but a single binge episode is universally believed to MUCH more harmful than moderate or light drinking (2 a day) over a few hours, or over a week. 4/5 drinks in an hour? That’s got to be majorly damaging. My timing was just, awful. And the worst thing is, i never drink usually.
Best answer:
Answer by ♥MissionDelicious♥
My cousin didn’t know she was pregnant until she was 10 weeks.
She partied and went clubbing like crazy, drinking a lot.
She worried so much when she found out she was pregnant, but the baby is absolutely fine.
My suggestion is to just stop drinking, you don’t have to have an abortion.
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March 18, 2008 — Binge drinking 3 or more times during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for stillbirth, but neither frequency nor timing of binge drinking was associated with an increased risk for spontaneous abortion in clinically recognized pregnancies, according to the results of a study reported in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
“For binge drinking to induce chromosomal aberrations, it has to occur during the follicular cycle leading to conception or at the time of the early cleavage,” write Katrine Strandberg-Larsen, MSc, from the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues. “Later binge drinking may have direct lethal effects on the embryo/fetus and thereby lead to chromosomally normal, but maybe otherwise abnormal, fetal deaths. In the present study, we used data from the largest existing maternal-child cohort, the Danish National Birth Cohort, to assess the association between binge drinking in the first 16 weeks of gestation and risk of early, as well as late, fetal death.”
The goal of this study was to determine whether the frequency and timing of episodes of binge drinking, defined as intake of 5 or more drinks on 1 occasion, during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy affects the risk for fetal death.
From 1996 to 2002, a total of 89,201 women were enrolled in the Danish National Birth Cohort and participated in an interview that took place in midpregnancy (n = 86,752) or after fetal loss (n = 2449). Fetal death occurred in 3714 pregnancies. Cox regression models were used for data analysis.
Spontaneous abortion was categorized as early (≤ 12 completed weeks) or late (13 – 21 completed weeks). Stillbirth was defined as fetal death at 22 or more completed weeks.
Neither the frequency nor the timing of binge episodes was related to the risk for early or late spontaneous abortion. Compared with nonbinge drinkers, however, women who reported 3 or more binge episodes during pregnancy had an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.56 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01 – 2.40) for stillbirth. Compared with women with an average intake of 0 drinks per week and no binge drinking, women with an average intake of 3 or more drinks per week and 2 or more episodes of binge drinking had a HR of 2.20 (95% CI, 1.73 – 2.80) for fetal death.
“Binge drinking three or more times during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of stillbirth, but neither frequency nor timing of binge drinking was associated with an increased risk of spontaneous abortion in clinically recognized pregnancies,” the study authors write. “Women who continue to drink alcohol after they know they are pregnant, especially in large amounts, including binge drinking, may increase the risk of fetal death, and clinicians need to pay special attention to these women.”
Limitations of the study include inability to rule out unmeasured or residual confounding; difficulty in studying early spontaneous abortion is in a prospective setting; use of retrospectively collected information for women who miscarried before interview resulting in possible recall bias; and women with retrospectively collected data were interviewed with a longer delay from conception than women with prospectively collected data, which may have led to underreporting of binge drinking.
“On the basis of a precautionary principle, we would suggest that pregnant women and pregnancy planners should be advised to avoid alcohol consumption, including binge drinking,” the study authors conclude.
The Danish Ministry of Health, the Danish National Board of Health, and the Health Insurance Foundation funded this study. The Danish National Research Foundation established the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre that initiated and created the Danish National Birth Cohort. Additional support for the Danish National Birth Cohort was provided by the Pharmacy Foundation, the Egmont Foundation, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, and the Augustinus Foundation. The study authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Really this is up to you.. I would just check if you doing your math right on the pregnancy.
Being actually pregnant for 26 days would be about 5 weeks 5 days into your pregnancy (since the standard pregnancy is 40 weeks from your last menstrual period which would include two weeks before ovulation). When you say you are four weeks pregnant, you really have only been pregnant for two of them. If you were 26 days from your period, you would only be about 12 days pregnant.
I went drinking before I found out i was pregnant. I was feeling really crampy and was convinced I was getting my period. I had about 4 drinks in 2 hours and was pretty buzzed.( I have no alcohol tolerance) I found out I was pregnant about 2 days later. So I was about 12 days pregnant. My child was fine….very intelligent and does well in school. Your situation is not that uncommon. Alot of women go out and drink before they realize they are pregnant.
Really its up to you…but nothing is certain. You really don’t know if your baby was affected by your single night of drinking.You could be aborting a perfectly normal child.
I was a very, very heavy drinker before I was pregnant. I had at least 3 binge drinking sessions before I knew I was pregnant, probably more. I drank a lot more than you did. I chose to continue my pregnancy and I’m now 39 weeks. You can’t tell whether or not it will actually affect your child until it’s born but you should love it the same anyway. I don’t think this is a very good reason to have an abortion and that maybe you are just looking for a good reason. By all means if you decide you want to do it, then do it but I don’t think you have much to worry about.
I don’t know how many times I have to say I hate the word abortion, I think the word itself is so vulgar and disgusting. There is always adoption, since your so afraid of having a MENTALLY CHALLENGED child, not retarded child. And like other woman have stated, they drank heavily before they found out they were pregnant, and their children are fine. Like another person said, if your just looking for an excuse, this isn’t a very good one. Personally I believe there are no excuses for wanting to kill your baby. But people will do, what people will do. Don’t be selfish, have the baby and if your not ready to take care of it, put it up for adoption, so hopefully someone who isn’t lucky enough to even be able to get pregnant, can have the child they always dreamed of.
It really is your choice.Nobody can suggest it or not.Nobody can say if your child would be fine or not.
How about you ask a doctor if five shots would have been enough to effect a child or not?
I’d imagine that there are some people who do drink during pregnancy and their babies turn out fine.I think that most of the time, it’s alcoholics that drink everyday that affect their children like that.
If you are going to keep it, try to boost the baby’s brain power while in your stomach.Take DHA supplements and perhaps try the “baby plus prenatal education system”.If your baby is affected, doing these will help the baby become more functional.
And for future reference, moderation girl! lol
Don’t be mad at yourself.If you knew, you wouldn’t have done it.
Good luck.
abortion is never the answer… just be more aware now that you know you are pregnant
Do not abort this child because something might be wrong with it. How incredible selfish is that? I didnt know I was pregnant with either one of my kids until I was 3months pregnant. Yes I said 3 months! Do you know how much I probably drank in those 3 months? My children are PERFECT. You know what the right thing is. Just keep your baby. I am sure everything is fine!