You may also want to talk over your options with your family or friends. It can help to write a list of the questions you want answered and take it to your appointment. You will be supported directly or given advice about where to find local counselling or support services available to you. This information is for you if you are pregnant or are planning to have a baby. It may also be helpful if you are a partner, relative or friend of someone who is pregnant or planning a pregnancy.
- If you drink alcohol during pregnancy, some alcohol will pass through the placenta to your baby.
- Alcohol is the ingredient in beer, malt liquor, wine, and spirits (“hard liquor”) that can cause feelings of being “buzzed” or drunk.
- Talk to your baby’s healthcare provider about your alcohol use during pregnancy.
- It is unsafe for people to consume any amount of alcohol during pregnancy.
The safest option is to avoid alcohol during breastfeeding as alcohol can find its way into your breast milk. Regular drinking during breastfeeding may affect your baby’s development. While FASD is less severe than FAS, children with FASD can have learning difficulties, problems with behaviour, physical disability, and emotional and psychiatric problems that last a lifetime. Whether or not a baby is affected mildly or severely with FASD is directly linked to how much and how often a woman drinks during pregnancy.
Adverse Maternal Outcomes From Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol use appears to be the most harmful during the first 3 months of pregnancy; however, drinking alcohol anytime during pregnancy can be harmful. Drinking alcohol while pregnant has been shown to cause harm to a baby as it develops in the womb. Alcohol used during pregnancy may also lead to long-term medical problems and birth defects.
It’s recommended that if you’re pregnant or planning to become pregnant you should not drink alcohol. CDC works with partners across the country to address alcohol and other substance use during pregnancy and FASDs. These scientific findings help inform evidence-based care and resources. They collaborate to provide training to healthcare professionals and disseminate updated information.
Related MedlinePlus Health Topics
Binge drinking has been defined as a pattern of drinking alcohol that results in a BAC of 0.08% or more. This typically happens if a woman has 4 or more drinks in about 2 hours. (For men, it is typically 5 or more drinks within about 2 hours). Heavy alcohol use in women has been defined as consuming 4 or more drinks on any day or 8 or more drinks per week.
NEURODEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTS
Women who find out they’re pregnant after already having drunk in early pregnancy should avoid further drinking for the rest of their pregnancy. It may not be as difficult as you think to avoid alcohol completely during pregnancy. People with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder can haveintellectual disabilities and issues with behavior and learning. School is oftenchallenging and they have difficulty with math, memory, attention, judgement,and poor impulse control. NIAAA Alcohol Treatment NavigatorThe National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has an Alcohol Treatment Navigator. SAMHSA Treatment Locator — FindTreatment.govThe Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a treatment facility locator.
- It should not take the place of medical care and advice from your healthcare provider.
- Your child’s healthcare provider can talk with you about what is available for families and children with problems related to alcohol exposure in pregnancy.
- However, the organization also recommends discussing this with a healthcare professional and stopping drinking.
Alcohol use in the first 3 months of pregnancy can cause the baby to have abnormal facial features. Growth and central nervous system problems (for example, low birthweight, behavioral problems) can occur from alcohol use anytime during pregnancy. The baby’s brain is developing throughout pregnancy and can be affected by exposure to alcohol at any time. Having more than one drink per day is not recommended while breastfeeding. However, since breastfeeding has known benefits for the baby, talk with your baby’s healthcare provider about how much and how often you drink so they can help you weigh the risks and benefits of continuing to breastfeed. Be sure to talk to your healthcare provider about all your breastfeeding questions.
Alcohol
However, if you cut down or stop drinking altogether, your baby will start to grow at a normal rate. Stopping drinking at any point during pregnancy can be beneficial. However, in some instances, the effects of heavy drinking on your baby cannot be reversed. If you drink alcohol during pregnancy, some alcohol will pass through the placenta to your baby. The more you drink the greater is the risk of harm to your baby. Alcohol use during pregnancy might affect one baby more than another.
Use CDC’s alcohol screening tool to check your drinking and make a plan to drink less. Everyone can benefit from drinking less alcohol or not drinking at all. If you want to drink less, it can also help you build a plan to make healthier choices. Your midwife will offer you information and support on how to cut down or stop drinking alcohol. The information here aims to help you better understand your health and your Alcohol During Pregnancy options for treatment and care. Your healthcare team is there to support you in making decisions that are right for you.
Links to other organizations
(For men, it has been defined as consuming 5 or more drinks on any day or 15 or more per week.) While this can vary from woman to woman, it is recommended to avoid all alcohol use in pregnancy. Drinking heavily during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) or fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, the alcohol travels through her blood and into the baby’s blood, tissues, and organs.
The times before, during and after pregnancy are allcritical periods for maternal alcohol consumption awareness, reduction, and ideallyabstinence. Knowing that fetalalcohol exposure is the most common nongenetic cause of cognitive impairment, it iscritical to identify maternal alcohol consumption early as a primary target toprevent downstream FASD. Therefore, innovative research studies are vital to betterunderstand the mechanism of alcohol on pregnancy to then target the development oftherapeutic strategies to mitigate its adverse effects and improve maternal andfetal outcomes. Every pregnancy starts out with a 3-5% chance of having a birth defect. Drinking alcohol in pregnancy can cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading cause of problems with brain development in the United States. If you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant and cannot stop drinking, get help! Contact your healthcare provider, local Alcoholics Anonymous, or local alcohol treatment center. According to the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, if a person drinks before they know they are pregnant, the risk to the fetus is generally small. However, the organization also recommends discussing this with a healthcare professional and stopping drinking. Children with FAS have a pattern of birth defects that includes specific facial features, a smaller head and body size, and effects on brain development that can cause significant challenges in learning and behavior.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has an Alcohol Treatment Navigator. Copyright 2025 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Read copyright and permissions information.This information is designed as an educational aid for the public.
FASD includes a range of effects related to alcohol exposure in pregnancy, from physical birth defects (including defects of the heart, kidneys, and bones) to changes in brain development. Depending on the specific effects or combination of effects, healthcare providers use different terms to describe different kinds of FASD. This can result in a reduction of primaryFASD disabilities as well as secondary disabilities often related to FASD in theabsence of diagnosis. Alcohol exposure during pregnancy results in impaired growth, stillbirth,and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Fetal alcohol deficits are lifelong issueswith no current treatment or established diagnostic or therapeutic tools toprevent and/or ameliorate some of these adverse outcomes. Despite therecommendation to abstain, almost half of the women consume alcohol in pregnancyin the United States.
