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Home › Articles › Nutrition › How Much is Too Much?

How Much is Too Much?

Indulging Your Pregnant Whims

By Katherine Bontrager

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This same welcome news to coffee and chocolate lovers does not necessarily extend to alcohol consumption, however. "In contrast to caffeine, there is no safe amount of alcohol for a woman to drink during pregnancy," say Doctors Cole and Nelson. "Alcohol is transported from the mother to the developing baby and can cause problems with brain development. Chronic alcohol exposure throughout pregnancy or binge drinking can cause fetal alcohol syndrome, a combination of birth defects and brain abnormalities that will greatly limit the potential for a baby to grow and develop normally."

According to Stein, consuming six alcoholic drinks a day is known to cause fetal alcohol syndrome, but the minimal amount that will cause fetal damage is unknown. "Therefore I can't recommend alcohol use," she says. "I explain to pregnant women that the first trimester is when the baby's body is being formed and the gravest risk is at this time. In the second trimester, the fetus is focused on functioning and growing [but all structure is already laid down] ... So toward the end of the pregnancy, in the final month, if it's holiday time, I tell my patients it's OK to have one glass of wine. One glass will not hurt her baby from 36 to 40 weeks."

In the end, it's best for any new mom-to-be to talk with a skilled health care provider before conception to identify indulgences that might increase the risk of future problems.

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