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.¹

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.²

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

Not drinking alcohol is the safest approach³

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can affect:⁴

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

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

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and your baby having a low birthweight. It can also affect your baby after they’re born.^5,6

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.⁷ Each additional alcoholic drink per week increases the risk of miscarriage by 7%.⁸

Alcohol’s effect on an unborn baby

Drinking during pregnancy can affect the way your baby develops and grows in the uterus (womb):⁹

• 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.¹⁰

Drinking is a risk during the entire pregnancy

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

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.¹¹

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

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.¹² While these problems can be caused by a range of factors, research shows that both ovulation¹³ and sperm quality¹⁴ 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.¹⁵ 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.¹⁶

Find out more about alcohol and fertility 

Practical advice for staying alcohol-free

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 and most women give up alcohol once they know they’re pregnant or when they’re planning to become pregnant.¹⁷

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

1. Make the switch. There are lots of alcohol-free alternatives available in supermarkets, pubs and restaurants. Alcohol-free ‘mocktails’ can also be a refreshing way to replace alcohol, though try to avoid the heavily sugar-laden ones.
2. Partner up. Ask your partner to stand in solidarity with you by cutting down or stopping their drinking as well.
3. Get support. If you think you might have problems stopping drinking talk to your doctor or midwife as soon as possible. And check out our list of support services.

Find out what support is available.