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How much can I safely drink during pregnancy?

Keith Eddleman, MD, Maternal-Fetal Medicine:

Clearly, excessive alcohol consumption is not good for a developing fetus. But there's no data to show that having one drink at a wedding, or some significant event is going to cause deleterious effects on the developing embryo. You should avoid regular frequent alcohol consumption while you're pregnant, but if you inadvertently have a margarita while on vacation before you find out that you're pregnant, and that's all you have, you should not be concerned that that's going to cause a significant problem.

Narrator:

What if you're a regular wine drinker?

Keith Eddleman, MD, Maternal-Fetal Medicine:

Some people fell that it's okay to have an occasional glass of wine, maybe one a week, and again, that's a personal decision. There's no data to show the absolute safe level of alcohol consumption. That's why many people say avoid it altogether. But I think that if you look at countries like France, where wine consumption, even during pregnancy, is much, much more frequent, their incidence of birth defects and alcohol related birth defects you know specifically, is really not different than the United States, and may be even lower.

Narrator:

You know the Germans tell you to drink a glass of beer.

Keith Eddleman, MD, Maternal-Fetal Medicine:

Well alcohol interestingly I think the alcohol or the equivalents, beer, one beer is equivalent to a glass of wine, which is equivalent to one you know cocktail, so I think they are probably all equal in their safety and equal in their risks.