Alcohol and pregnancy

Drinking alcohol at any stage during pregnancy can cause harm to your baby – and the more you drink, the greater the risk.

That’s why the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines advise that if you’re pregnant or think you could become pregnant, the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to keep risks to your baby to a minimum.

Not drinking alcohol is the safest approach¹

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can affect:²

• The way your baby develops and grows in the womb
• Your baby’s health at birth
• Your child’s long-term health

Avoiding alcohol completely keeps risks for the baby to a minimum.

If you didn’t know you were pregnant and drank alcohol during early pregnancy, talk to your GP or midwife about any concerns you have. Just because you may have drunk a little alcohol does not necessarily mean that your unborn baby has come to any harm.

Most importantly, stop drinking as soon as you do realise you’re pregnant. Stopping drinking at any point during pregnancy can be beneficial - although, in some instances, the effects of heavy drinking on your baby cannot be reversed.

Miscarriage risk

Any binge drinking, or regularly drinking more than the UK low risk drinking guidelines, increases the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature labour.

The NHS advises that the risk of miscarriage in the first three months of pregnancy means it’s particularly important not to drink alcohol at all during that period.³ 

This risk increases the more you drink. Researchers have found that women who said they had more than four alcoholic drinks per week were almost three times more likely to miscarry than women who didn’t drink at all.⁴

However, drinking alcohol carries risk for your baby throughout the whole pregnancy, not only for the first three months.

Alcohol’s effect on the development of an unborn baby

Drinking during pregnancy can:⁵

• Cause damage to other organs in the body including the heart
• Affect their growth by causing the placenta not to work as well as it should
• Make your baby more prone to illness in infancy, childhood, and as an adult
• Cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) a serious, life-long condition that affects a child’s brain development, behaviour and growth – more information below

If you drink, alcohol crosses from your bloodstream through the placenta directly into your baby’s blood. Because the baby is still developing, their body isn’t able to process the alcohol.

Drinking alcohol while you’re pregnant could affect your baby’s health

The more you drink the greater the risk to your baby’s health.

Drinking at any stage during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth or low birth weight for your baby. Evidence shows that even light alcohol consumption (four or less units per week) is associated with low birth weight and early birth.^6,7  

Drinking alcohol throughout pregnancy can also cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) - a serious, life-long condition that affects a child’s brain development, behaviour and growth.  

If you are worried about how much you have been drinking in the early stages of pregnancy, talk to your GP or midwife.

Find out about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

Practical advice for staying alcohol-free

Sadly, in the UK, as many as 1 in 13 babies born to mothers who drink during their pregnancy are affected by FASD.^13,14

But you might find it’s not as difficult as you think to avoid alcohol completely - many women go off the taste of alcohol early in pregnancy.¹⁵

There are practical things you can do to make it easier to stay alcohol-free, and protect you and your baby.

How to stop drinking completely

What to do if you’re trying to become pregnant

It’s estimated that fertility problems affect one in seven couples in the UK, with the most common causes being ovulation problems for women, and sperm disorders for men.⁸ While these problems can be caused by a range of factors, research shows that both ovulation⁹ and sperm quality¹⁰ can be affected by drinking alcohol.

If you’re trying to become pregnant, you should stop drinking - this will protect the baby if you’re pregnant and don’t yet realise it.^11,12  Not drinking at all while trying to conceive and during pregnancy is also a great way for men to support their partner, and to ensure their sperm is the highest possible quality.

Find out more about alcohol and fertility