Pregnancy requires you to follow a healthy lifestyle, adhering to the vital dos and don’ts for those nine months.
While you draw up a nutrition-packed diet chart for yourself and your baby, you may want to know if you can keep alcohol in the list of foods and beverages you need to stay away from during those months.
While some say that it may be okay to take alcohol in extreme moderation during the first trimester, others strongly recommend banishing any kind of alcohol during pregnancy.
Here are some points you need to keep in mind:
1. Risk of miscarriage
If you opt for limitless alcohol consumption during pregnancy, you are inviting all sorts of dangers. Mindlessly glugging alcohol down your throat, especially in the first three months of your pregnancy, increases the risk of miscarriage. Premature birth and low birth weight are some of the telling characteristics of an infant who was subjected to alcohol during the gestation period.
2. Mood swings
Experts say uncontrolled consumption of alcohol during pregnancy can trigger mood swings, along with dehydration. So, you can avoid alcohol altogether, and if there’s dehydration, drink plenty of water – minimum 8-10 glasses per day. Also go for homemade soups, juices and fruits — all are packed with antioxidants and nutrition.
3. Diabetes danger
Experts say that there is now an ongoing discourse on the connection between drinking alcohol and insulin levels. Alcohol increases blood sugar levels. It stresses the pancreas too, which in turn propels it to release more insulin to lower blood sugar levels. This interferes with the effective absorption of nutrients into body cells.
4. Keep it to a minimum
In a Harvard Medical School blog, Dr Howard LeWine, Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing, says that small amounts of alcohol early in pregnancy may be less risky to the mother’s health and the health of their babies than previously believed. He further says keeping alcohol consumption to a minimum during the first trimester doesn’t appear to increase the risk for high blood pressure complications, or premature birth or low birth weights.
