Editorial: Just one glass is not okay

You're heavy, uncomfortable, sleeping badly and fairly irritable.

There's a lot made in Hollywood of the pregnancy glow, but for most of us garden variety sheilas, it's hard graft and far from glamorous. So, when your partner takes you out for dinner to commemorate the half-way mark of the incubation process, or your girlfriends drag your hefty frame out for a swanky high tea baby shower, isn't it okay to have a glass of bubbles? Just one glass?

Apparently not.

An internationally acclaimed expert on complex learning difficulties, Professor Barry Carpenter, was in town to address an educational administration and leadership conference.

He told the Bay of Plenty Times women who drank infrequent and even small amounts during pregnancy were "gambling".

Just one glass. How bad could it be?

"When a woman drinks alcohol it's more dangerous than drugs or smoking because the alcohol goes immediately into the bloodstream," Prof Carpenter said.

"Basically what the mother drinks is what baby drinks. You have a liver with enzymes that de-toxifies. That wee baby in the first trimester doesn't have a liver. It can't de-tox itself. So how do they protect themselves? They can't."

Drinking during pregnancy can lead to Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), a disorder affecting brain function, behaviour and physical appearance. Most people know this, but suspect it applies only to those sick enough to go on hellish benders while pregnant.

But according to Prof Carpenter, it applies to all pregnant women at every stage of the pregnancy.

I was so sick during pregnancy with a condition called hyperemesis that I couldn't drink water, let alone alcohol. But I have plenty of smart, educated, well-meaning friends who have drunk through their pregnancies, in the belief that one won't hurt. Just one glass.

Prof Carpenter's message that women should not drink anything during pregnancy may take a while to catch on. The belief that you can get away with one drink here and there is especially prevalent among second-time mums.

When I was seven months' pregnant, I went to a concert and when the lights came on I realised the woman next to me was pregnant too. She swiftly hid the glass of wine in her hand. I distinctly remember smiling at her, as if to say: "Don't worry, if I weren't feeling so foul, I'd be having one too."

Just one glass, of course.

There's no arguing with the research but many will believe it won't happen to them. Prof Carpenter talks about every glass of wine as a roll of the die for a pregnant woman. "The one glass of wine could be drunk on the wrong day at the wrong time."

Research shows 90 per cent of FASD adults have mental health problems and only about 10 per cent are able to work. Sadly, these outcomes befall a percentage of the population regardless of how much care their parents took during gestation. But for those who are on track to have a perfectly healthy baby, is it worth it? A lifetime of potential mental anguish and social dysfunction, all for just one glass.