In fact, the described situation implies at least three different plots:
- On New Year’s Eve, you already knew (or at least guessed) about your pregnancy.
- By the New Year, conception had already occurred, but you did not know about it yet.
- Conception happened after champagne, right on New Year’s Eve.
And the forecasts for all three options will be different. In order not to get confused, let’s define the terms: there is a real and obstetric gestational age. Obstetric is always about two weeks longer than the real one, because it is counted from the first day of the last menstruation. Real is the period from the moment of conception. But if you have a regular sex life, then it is rather problematic to calculate it. It’s another matter, of course, if sex on New Year’s Eve was your first or only one in a year – in this case, expectant mothers prefer to count from this significant date. But obstetricians still (just in case) are guided by the menstrual cycle. So there are three options:
Did you know about the pregnancy
If by the New Year you were supposed to start, but your periods didn’t start, then we can assume that it was the 3rd week of the real term or the 5th obstetric one. Just at this time, the formation of organs and the neural tube of the unborn child begins.
In this case, the answer of modern medicine will be unequivocal and uncompromising: alcohol is completely unacceptable, and its safe dose does not exist. The fact is that alcohol penetrates the so-called utero-placental barrier in full, which leads to a violation of the development of the fetal nervous system. Especially dangerous is the use of even a glass of wine or beer in the first trimester of pregnancy (the first 12 weeks) – during this period, the laying of organs and systems occurs, therefore, the smallest dose of alcohol can lead to the formation of a serious pathology, and sometimes to a missed pregnancy. In addition, drinking alcohol during pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome – in this case, the child is born already with a formed addiction.
Of course, no one will undertake to claim that this happens in one hundred percent of cases, but by allowing yourself champagne at 5-12 weeks of pregnancy, you deliberately risked. And the responsibility for all further risks also falls on you.
You didn’t know about the pregnancy
According to the schedule, menstruation should have come just in time for the end of the holidays. Let’s say today you are 2-3 days late and have a positive test. Then everything is not so tragic: when you moved the glasses to the chimes, the placenta had not yet begun to form, it was 1-2 weeks of the real term, the embryo still doubted whether it should be fixed … And if it decided that it was not worth it, it would have left you – and it would look like another (perhaps a little early) menstruation. Therefore, the chances that alcohol will not have a negative effect are high.
Sex was after champagne
From an obstetrical point of view, this means that you took alcohol in preparation for pregnancy. Here, the verdict of scientists is not so unambiguous: many agree that if pregnancy has not yet occurred, a couple of glasses of wine at the festive table will not hurt. But this only applies to the mother.
But it is desirable for the future father to reduce alcohol consumption to a minimum approximately 2.5 months before the planned conception, since it takes so much time for the formation of spermatozoa, the mobility of which decreases under the influence of alcohol. In addition, the use of alcoholic beverages can lead to hereditary diseases. It is believed that it is relatively safe for a man to consume no more than 25 grams of pure alcohol per day (a glass of wine or half a glass of vodka).
This means that for the unborn child, the alcohol that his father took in November-December is much more dangerous than the glass of champagne that was drunk right on the eve of a romantic date. So if you adhered to a healthy lifestyle for the whole year (or at least three months), and conception occurred on New Year’s Eve after a glass of champagne, then nothing terrible will happen.
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