Will Heavy Drinking Cause A Miscarriage?
Will Heavy Drinking Cause a Miscarriage?
If you’re wondering if heavy drinking can cause a miscarriage, the answer is yes. If you are pregnant, you should not drink any alcohol. In fact, if you are even thinking about getting pregnant, you should avoid alcohol.
When you drink alcohol at any point during your pregnancy, it increases the likelihood of miscarriage as well as premature birth, birth defects and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
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How Does Alcohol Affect the Health of an Unborn Baby?
When you drink alcohol while pregnant, the alcohol passes through the placenta and umbilical cord, reaching your baby. The placenta supplies an unborn baby with oxygen and food inside the mother’s uterus.
Any amount of alcohol can cause harm to a developing baby’s organs and brain. No amount of alcohol is proven safe during pregnancy.
With drinking and pregnancy, specific risks include:
- Miscarriage, defined as a baby dying in the womb before the 20th week of pregnancy.
- Stillbirth, which is when a baby dies in the womb after the 20th week of pregnancy.
- Low birth weight, which is when a baby is born weighing under five pounds, eight ounces.
- Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, which can lead to a range of developmental and intellectual disabilities.
- If you binge drink, your chances of having a baby with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders increase significantly.
- Binge drinking is considered having four or more drinks in two to three hours.
- Birth defects such as hearing, vision, or heart problems. When a baby is born with birth defects, it can impact their overall health, development and body function.
- Brain damage and developmental problems can occur with drinking and pregnancy.
- Premature birth, where a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
- A premature baby is at risk of serious health problems not only at birth but later in life.
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Why Will Heavy Drinking Cause a Miscarriage?
Miscarriage means the spontaneous loss of pregnancy before the 20th week. A miscarriage can be incredibly traumatic for a mother. Unfortunately, miscarriages are already common, even without alcohol being involved. An estimated 10 to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage.
Symptoms of a miscarriage depend on how far along the pregnancy is.
Along with drinking and miscarriage being related to one another, using other illicit drugs or smoking during pregnancy can also increase the risk of miscarriage. Other miscarriage risk factors include age, weight, and chronic conditions like uncontrolled diabetes.
Avoiding drinking during pregnancy and using other substances is a key way to lower your risk. Again, there is no amount of alcohol use that is considered safe during pregnancy.
It can also be risky to drink alcohol when you are breastfeeding. If you do drink alcohol while breastfeeding, you should limit your intake and wait at least two hours after a drink to nurse.
What are Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders?
If you drink during pregnancy, there is the risk of a baby being born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. A diagnosis is based on different symptoms.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or FAS is the most involved end of the spectrum. A baby born with FAS may have central nervous system problems, growth problems and facial feature effects. A baby with FAS may develop problems with memory, learning, communication, attention span and vision.
Another disorder is alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder, or ARND, which may lead to intellectual disabilities and behavioral and learning problems in your baby. There are also alcohol-related birth defects or ARBD. A baby born with ARBD may develop have kidney, bone, and heart problems.
All of these effects last a lifetime, and there is no cure. However, early intervention may help improve some symptoms.
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Avoiding Alcohol During Pregnancy
If you are pregnant and you find that you are not able to stop using alcohol, what can you do?
Here are a few tips:
- If you usually drink alcohol in certain situations or when you are with specific people, focus on avoiding those scenarios.
- Stay away from places where people often drink, such as bars.
- Take the alcohol out of your home.
- Ask your partner or family to help you stay accountable during your pregnancy.
- Talk to your doctor about an alcohol treatment program.
- Join a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous, which follows a 12-step model.
Addiction Treatment if You Are Pregnant
If you are having trouble not using alcohol during your pregnancy, you should consider a treatment program. This might be a residential treatment program or outpatient treatment.
Resurgence Behavioral Health has a variety of personalized programs available, including for women who are pregnant and want to avoid the risks of drinking and pregnancy.
When you are entering treatment, and especially when you are pregnant, you want to go to a center that’s comfortable and feels like home, which is the case at Resurgence.
You also want to work with not just clinically-trained professionals but people who are empathetic and understand what you are going through.
You can expect the following during treatment for alcohol addiction or dependence:
- You will work with addiction medicine specialists who will initially do an assessment to understand more about your alcohol use and dependence. They can also assess psychiatric disorders. Once your assessment is completed, the treatment team creates a specialized treatment plan.
- The first stage of treatment for alcohol dependence is often detoxification or detox. This is when someone goes through the symptoms of withdrawal. Medical experts can monitor your health during this time and take steps to keep you safe and as comfortable as possible.
- Then, many people continue with inpatient treatment, which may include therapeutic treatment and a comprehensive focus on recovery.
- Some people may participate in outpatient treatment rather than inpatient treatment (or following inpatient treatment), depending on their individual needs.
Following treatment, your plan may detail what you should do when you return home to continue your recovery. For example, you might regularly attend Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step meetings in your hometown.
How to Find Help for Drinking and Pregnancy
If you are worried about the potential for drinking and miscarriage to occur, contact Resurgence Behavioral Health. A baby’s brain and body are developing throughout the entirety of your pregnancy, so it is never too late to stop drinking.
If you would like to learn more about the treatment options available, and how to get help for drinking during pregnancy, our team of compassionate treatment experts is available now. We can go over available options and also verify your insurance coverage.
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Final Thoughts—Will Heavy Drinking Cause a Miscarriage?
To sum up, will heavy drinking cause a miscarriage? The answer is yes, it is a possibility. Using even small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can increase your risk of miscarriage. If you are a heavy drinker, that risk goes up substantially.
The more you drink and the longer you drink during pregnancy, the higher the risk of miscarriage.
In addition to miscarriage, drinking during pregnancy can lead to many other problems, such as stillbirth and developmental issues that will affect your child for their entire life.
Help is available so that you can stop drinking for the health of your baby. Contact Resurgence Behavioral Health today so that we can find the treatment plan that is best for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you miscarry from excessive drinking?
Yes, research consistently links heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy to increased risk of miscarriage. Studies suggest that binge drinking, defined as four or more drinks on one occasion, in early pregnancy can nearly double the risk of spontaneous pregnancy loss. Alcohol crosses the placenta freely, reaches the fetus at concentrations similar to the mother's blood alcohol level, and cannot be metabolized effectively by the developing embryo. Because no amount of prenatal alcohol exposure has been established as safe, the only medically appropriate guidance is complete abstinence, and anyone struggling with alcohol use during pregnancy should seek immediate support.
What is the #1 cause of miscarriage?
The most common identifiable causes of miscarriage include chromosomal abnormalities in the developing embryo, which account for approximately 50 percent of first-trimester losses. Other causes include uterine abnormalities, hormonal imbalances, immune system factors, infections, and environmental exposures including alcohol and certain medications. Heavy alcohol use is a modifiable risk factor for miscarriage, making alcohol use disorder an important medical priority for anyone who is pregnant or planning pregnancy.
What happens when you drink too much alcohol?
Drinking too much alcohol causes progressive impairment of the central nervous system from mild disinhibition and slurred speech at lower BACs to confusion, vomiting, coordination loss, dangerous slowing of breathing, and at very high levels, coma and death. The liver processes alcohol at approximately one standard drink per hour regardless of body size, so consuming large amounts quickly results in rapidly rising blood alcohol that the body cannot safely process. If someone appears severely intoxicated and cannot be awakened, this is a medical emergency.
What is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is an umbrella term for a range of conditions caused by prenatal alcohol exposure, including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), partial FAS, alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), and alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD). FAS, the most severe form, is characterized by distinctive facial features, growth deficiencies, and central nervous system damage producing lifelong cognitive and behavioral challenges. Milder forms involve neurodevelopmental impairment without the full facial feature profile. FASD is the leading known preventable cause of intellectual disability in the United States and is entirely preventable through abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy.
What are three signs you're drinking too much alcohol?
Three key warning signs of drinking too much alcohol are: regularly drinking more than you intend or planned to, finding that you think about drinking frequently and look forward to it as a primary relief for stress, and noticing that activities or relationships that don't involve alcohol have become less interesting or important. Other signals include hiding drinking from others, drinking to function normally in the morning, and finding that you need more alcohol to feel the same effects.
What are the effects of alcohol on pregnancy?
Alcohol during pregnancy crosses the placental barrier and reaches fetal blood at concentrations similar to the mother's. The developing fetus cannot metabolize alcohol effectively, leading to accumulation that causes structural damage to the brain and organs. Effects range from miscarriage and stillbirth to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders including intellectual disability, behavioral challenges, and lifelong neurodevelopmental impairment. No amount of alcohol has been established as safe during pregnancy, and complete abstinence is universally recommended.
What is considered a heavy drinker?
The NIAAA defines heavy drinking for women as more than 7 drinks per week or more than 3 drinks on any single day, and for men as more than 14 drinks per week or more than 4 on any single day. The CDC defines heavy drinking as more than 15 drinks per week for men and more than 8 per week for women. Regular drinking above these levels is associated with significantly elevated health risks and risk of developing alcohol use disorder.
Can drinking alcohol during pregnancy cause liver damage?
Prenatal alcohol exposure can damage the developing liver of the fetus, as the immature fetal liver has very limited capacity to metabolize alcohol. This can result in structural and functional liver abnormalities that are components of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. In the mother, alcohol consumption during pregnancy does not specifically increase liver damage risk beyond the general hepatic risks associated with alcohol use, but the primary concern is the fetal liver and its developmental impairment. Any amount of alcohol during pregnancy carries risk to the developing fetus, and complete abstinence is the only evidence-based recommendation.
What is the difference between heavy drinkers and alcoholics?
The distinction between heavy drinking and alcoholism (alcohol use disorder) is primarily about control and compulsion. Heavy drinkers consume large amounts regularly but retain some ability to choose not to drink in certain circumstances. People with alcohol use disorder experience compulsive use, loss of control over the amount consumed, continued drinking despite significant negative consequences, and physical dependence that produces withdrawal symptoms when they stop. Many heavy drinkers transition into alcohol use disorder over time, which is why heavy drinking is treated as a risk condition.
What are 10 negative effects of drinking too much alcohol?
Ten negative effects of drinking too much alcohol include: liver disease (fatty liver, hepatitis, cirrhosis), cardiovascular damage (cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, high blood pressure), increased cancer risk (at least seven cancer types), brain damage and cognitive decline, pancreatitis, peripheral neuropathy, immune system suppression, mental health deterioration (worsening depression and anxiety), relationship and social consequences, and fatal overdose risk from alcohol poisoning. This comprehensive harm profile makes alcohol one of the most damaging substances used by humans.
