Alcoholism and Pregnancy I

Drinking alcohol while pregnant is putting your unborn baby at risk. Even light drinking is bad for your baby. This is because you are in effect feeding yourself a substance that is potentially poisonous to your body. In the normal way the body can easily handle a couple of drinks and all the toxins from the alcohol get eliminated from the body. However your baby is not able to get rid of these toxins and will ingest them straight from you.

How alcohol affects your unborn baby:

Alcohol can have devastating effects on your baby. It slows development. The baby will have a smaller brain and will often be subject to mental retardation. You are in effect giving your baby a lifetime of problems. They will be continually fighting for survival in life with mental handicaps. Do you really want to give your baby this lifetime legacy just for the short pleasure that drinking will give you?

Babies, whose mothers consume alcohol when they are pregnant, are also more prone to addictions themselves. This can be alcohol or a number of other things like gambling, drugs, cigarettes, and many other things. When a person has a tendency to be addicted to things it leads to all sorts of compulsive behaviors. Again you are setting your baby up for all sorts of problems later in life. You may be experiencing an addiction to alcohol and you surely do not want your baby to grow up with the same problems.

Not only mental problems can occur but also physical ones as well. Your baby will have a smaller birth weight. They will not be so well developed physically when they are born. This will put them at a further disadvantage in life. It is a tough competitive world and your baby needs all the help they can get to survive and be successful in their life. It is not a fair deal for them to start out at a disadvantage in life because you have made the wrong decisions.

Given all the problems that alcohol can produce in your baby the question arises; is it really necessary to drink while you are pregnant? If you care about your unborn child then perhaps you should think twice before taking that drink. With all the damage alcohol can do to an adult just imagine all the damage that is going on with your unborn child. You can refuse that drink, whereas your unborn baby cannot.