We all wish to have a healthy baby. However, you might not always get such a healthy baby. For that, there are some Do’s and Do not to follow to achieve the above goal. For the sake of the unborn baby, you may have to eliminate some of the habits you may love a lot. One of the important part id the avoidance of use of alcohol during pregnancy.
But why do you need to avoid alcohol during pregnancy? Because it has lot of complication to your baby in addition to already existing complications to you. It is not only affect you baby during pregnancy, but also it can harm your baby soon after the delivery. Therefore consumption of alcohol is also a habit you should altogether avoid during and soon after the pregnancy. Unless you would experience some terrible experience in the future that you could have avoided.
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What are the complications of alcohol during pregnancy to mother
Although some literature says “Moderate use of alcohol use has benefits”, most of the people using alcohol face lot of complications. These include increase the risk of liver diseases, psychological illness and etc.
Being a pregnant lady, you can’t avoid above complications. In addition you may have added risk of usage of alcohol during pregnancy even if it is a small amount.
Is there a safe limit for alcohol for pregnant women?
When we talk about alcohol, we talk about a safe level of alcohol. That is 2 cups per day for 5 days a week for women and 3 cups per day for 5 days a week for men. However, is it okay for a pregnant lady to consume alcohol? It is not. It is advised that you should avoid alcohol altogether during pregnancy and even during the period of lactation.
“Therefore there is no safe limit on alcohol consumption during pregnancy.”
RCOG Guidelines on Alcohol consumption
How can your alcohol consumption during pregnancy affect your fetus?
It is well-known that the fetus takes most of the mother’s things. This adaptation is made for the survival of the baby during pregnancy. That is how he takes food, oxygen, nutrition and etc. So alcohol is also can go to the baby through your placenta. Although you can detoxify and remove the alcohol from your body, your unborn child won’t be able to. Therefore he will accumulate all the alcohol in his body and cause a lot of trouble which will cause problems in the future.
Some of the above problems are;
- Miscarriages
- Still Births
- Prematurity
- Low birth weight
- In addition to the above problems, a spectrum of issues is discussed under FASD.
Although the exact mechanism is not yet proven, there are a lot of explanations for this. The most widely used description is the Acetone based theory (some explain with acetaldehyde theory).
This Acetone is created as an end product of alcohol breakdown. Acetone goes to the baby through the placenta and accumulates in the fetal brain and other parts. One of the most essential functions of this is the reduction of cell division, which can reduce the baby’s growth rate in general. However, due to brain toxicity and poor brain cell growth, babies can have diminished mental capacity too.
What is FASD?
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorder is a collection of problems caused to the baby due to maternal alcohol consumption. It is a collection of physical, neurological, emotional, and behavioral features.
Physical Features:
Facial
- smooth philtrum
- Small eyes
- Small Jaw
- Thin Upper lips
- facial abnormalities with alcohol
Cardiac
- Heart Murmurs, including ASD, VSD
- Renal Problems
- Absent or distorted kidneys
- Growth abnormalities
Neurological Features:
- Small head
- Seizures
- Mental Retardation
- Emotional and Behavioral:
- Hyperactivity
- Poor language development
- Delayed hand and other motor skills
Therefore as a whole, this is a deadly or life-threatening problem. But still, as a mother, you can prevent it by your positive motivation to avoid alcohol. Because there is no cure for FASD.