Hello, My Name is Summer, and I Am Not an Alcoholic

I still remember the last drink I had before becoming pregnant.  It was the Mr. K's Perfect Martini with extra olives at Cobblestone's in Lowell.  In fact, I had two of them that night because they are that delicious.  It was sometime in January.

That means it had been almost ten months since I'd consumed an alcoholic beverage (until last night)...because, you know, I've been busy growing a human.  And it's generally a big no-no for people growing humans to hit the sauce... except, apparently it's not anymore??

Mere weeks after I gave birth, a study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that suggests that light drinking may not be harmful to an unborn child at all.  (More info.)

Which means I could have been drinking all along.  Sigh, all those bottles of wine wasted over the past few months...

EXCEPT, even if the study had been published before I gave birth, I still wouldn't have drank while pregnant. (I was an uptight pregnant lady.  Although maybe my sobriety was why I was so cranky all the time....)  

It's not that I disagree with the study.  I already believed that light drinking probably poses very little risk to your child.  After all, look at people in other parts of the world who continue to drink throughout their pregnancies.  They seem to be fine.  However, shielding my baby from the possible harmful effects of alcohol was one of the few things I felt I had control over while pregnant.  Giving up drinking wasn't a hard thing to do for me...it was harder giving up tuna fish sandwiches and caffeine quite frankly.  Plus, the message to not drink has been so ingrained in our society that drinking while pregnant probably would have made me feel...well, a bit trashy maybe.

It will be interesting to see if the culture around drinking while pregnant changes, but I have a feeling it won't.  Most medical communities are not changing their position on drinking because of this study, and again, there's the social stigma as well.  Honestly, what would you think if you saw a big pregnant lady drinking in a bar?

But last night, last night, my friends, I broke down and had my first alcoholic beverage in a long, long while.  I had a small glass of red wine while we ate Chinese food.  I had forgotten the mysterious way wine dances in your nose.  Pure magic.

Apparently, while I have strong feelings against drinking while pregnant, I don't have strong feelings about drinking while nursing.  I don't know why that is, but it was nice to let loose, even just a tiny bit, for a change.  

Taken long ago and far away when "light drinking" meant only half a handle of
Poland Springs Vodka.  I wasn't actually drinking the Jack Daniel's...that would have been too classy.
P.S. Don't ever buy Poland Springs Vodka.