Finding out you’re pregnant is (usually) a pretty awesome thing. It seems to be an overall wonderful experience, but there’s always been one caveat: you can’t drink any alcohol. Ever. But what if you could have an occasional cocktail?
Unfortunately, researchers seem to be at a crossroads when it comes to making that decision. The debate has been ongoing and very complicated. Some have conducted studies that show you can have one to four drinks a week during pregnancy. We aren’t talking about a night of binge drinking, but the occasional glass of wine with dinner.
Most people feel it’s worth it to keep their unborn baby safe from having major complications and choose to forgo the booze. Some studies show that even one drink a week could have negative physical and mental effects on the child. Even though we are self-proclaimed booze-hounds, we would skip the alcohol too if we were pregnant.
One of the biggest issues in their research is that it’s very hard to do it in a totally legit way. Why? It’s obvious that you can’t ask pregnant women to drink during their pregnancy so that you can study them. Scientists can really only compare women who choose to drink on their own. And even then, the scientists don’t have control over other factors like how many drinks they have, what they drink, and lifestyle choices like whether or not they smoke or are obese.
There are definitely some scientists who do believe you can have the occasional drink while pregnant, but unfortunately, we’re probably never going to have a definitive answer on the subject. Are you willing to risk it?