Alcohol

The risk to your baby depends on how much and how quickly you drink. Drinking a lot in a short time builds up the alcohol level in your blood to high levels; drinking a little at a time makes it less likely that the alcohol level that reaches your baby will do harm. There is very good evidence of severe harm to babies whose mothers drink heavily during pregnancy.

It is not clear however precisely what level of alcohol intake is safe and so Government advice on drinking alcohol during pregnancy is for expectant mums to avoid it completely if they can. If not, they suggest cutting down to one or two units of alcohol once or twice a week while pregnant.

It is not always easy to follow this advice. You might, for example, have drunk alcohol before you discovered that you were pregnant. Pregnant women who have had a few drinks often worry a great deal about whether they have harmed their baby. On balance though, it is believed that if you are a light, infrequent drinker, in general good health, and you get drunk on one occasion, then the risk to your baby is small.