Don’t drink alcohol during pregnancy.
It sounds like simple advice, and for many people, it is. You find out you’re pregnant, stop drinking, and spend the next several months discovering just how many other things people suddenly have opinions about.
Some women’s experiences are that straightforward, and others, not really.
Someone may discover she is pregnant several weeks after conception and immediately start calculating backward. There was wine at dinner most days of the week, that friend’s birthday, and of course, that weekend away. Suddenly, what should be exciting news comes with a rather frightening question: What if I already did something wrong?
Another woman may know she is pregnant and want very badly to stop drinking, but find that she cannot stop on her own.
These are very different situations, but neither one is helped much by shame.
September is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Awareness Month in Canada, making it a good time to talk about what we know about alcohol use during pregnancy. The medical recommendation is clear: no alcohol is the safest choice during pregnancy.
The conversation around how we help people get there is a little more complicated.
What we know about alcohol and pregnancy
Alcohol consumed during pregnancy can reach a developing fetus and interfere with development. According to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, there is no known safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy, and alcohol can cause harm at any point because the brain and central nervous system continue developing throughout pregnancy.
That means beer isn’t safer than liquor, and wine doesn’t get a special exemption because it came with dinner. It also means there isn’t a particular stage of pregnancy when drinking has been proven safe.
This can be confusing because people sometimes hear conflicting advice. Someone may remember a friend saying her doctor allowed an occasional glass of wine. Older relatives may point out that recommendations were different when they were pregnant. A quick internet search will produce plenty of personal stories from people who drank during pregnancy and had healthy children.
Personal experience can’t tell us what amount of alcohol will be safe for another pregnancy. The safest recommendation is not to drink while pregnant or when planning a pregnancy.
We’re here to help.
Contact us today for a no-obligation conversation with one of our professionals.
What is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder?
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder describes a range of lifelong effects that can occur following prenatal alcohol exposure.
FASD affects the brain and body, but it doesn’t look the same in everyone. One person may struggle with memory or attention, while another has more difficulty with communication, managing emotions, or understanding consequences. Some challenges may be obvious, while others are much harder to see.
FASD should not be treated as a description of everything a person is or everything their life will become. People with FASD have individual strengths, personalities, abilities, relationships, and goals just like everyone else. With support, people with FASD can experience better outcomes and live meaningful lives.
Awareness should make us better at supporting people with FASD, not simply better at warning pregnant women about them.
“I drank before I knew I was pregnant.”
This is probably one of the more frightening Google searches a newly pregnant person can make.
Pregnancy isn’t always discovered immediately. Someone may have been drinking normally before a missed period or positive pregnancy test without having any reason to think she was pregnant. Finding out later can cause a lot of panic.
If this has happened, the Government of Canada recommends stopping alcohol use once you know you are pregnant and talking with your healthcare provider about your concerns. Drinking before you knew you were pregnant does not mean you should assume your child will have FASD.
There is no test or calculation you can do at home to determine what effect, if any, the alcohol had. This is one of those situations where the internet will happily provide several thousand frightening answers, but your healthcare provider can give you information based on your individual circumstances and help you decide what to do next.
Most importantly, what happened before you knew about the pregnancy cannot be changed. What you do from this point forward can.
When stopping isn’t as simple as deciding to stop
There is another group of pregnant people who often get lost in conversations about FASD prevention. They may already know alcohol can affect a pregnancy, but they don’t feel they can stop drinking on their own.
The Public Health Agency of Canada acknowledges several reasons a person may drink during pregnancy, including not knowing she is pregnant, using alcohol to cope with trauma, poverty, isolation, violence, or depression, and having difficulty stopping because of alcohol use disorder.
Someone who has become dependent on alcohol may experience powerful cravings and withdrawal symptoms when she tries to stop. Alcohol may also have become the primary way she deals with anxiety, trauma, or stress.
Pregnancy may just add another layer of fear. A woman may worry that admitting how much she drinks will cause others to judge her. She may already feel guilty about exposing her baby to alcohol, which can make hiding the problem feel easier than admitting she needs help.
Unfortunately, hiding it also makes it harder to receive that help.
Shame doesn’t treat addiction
There is an understandable desire to protect developing babies from alcohol exposure. But turning that concern into blame can work against what we are trying to accomplish.
If a pregnant person expects to be judged for drinking, how likely is she to tell her doctor the truth?
If she believes everyone already thinks she is a bad mother, how easy will it be to admit that she cannot stop?
We can take the risks of alcohol use during pregnancy seriously without reducing a person to the worst thing she has done or the problem she is currently struggling with.
This is especially important because FASD prevention is more complicated than telling women not to drink. Research cautions against describing FASD as “100% preventable” because that language ignores the circumstances that can contribute to alcohol use during pregnancy and can increase stigma.
Someone struggling with alcohol dependence needs medical care and support, not another person explaining that drinking during pregnancy is dangerous. She probably already knows. The more useful question is what is making it difficult for her to stop and what kind of help would make stopping possible.
Getting help during pregnancy
If alcohol has become difficult to control during pregnancy, honesty with a healthcare provider is an important place to begin. That means being honest about how often you drink and how much, even if the answers are hard to say.
People with problematic alcohol use may need more than advice to abstain. Treatment can involve medical care, counselling, addiction treatment, mental health support, and help addressing some of the circumstances contributing to alcohol use.
This is especially important for anyone who may be physically dependent on alcohol. Withdrawal from heavy or prolonged alcohol use can be medically serious, so someone concerned about dependence should seek professional guidance rather than simply trying to manage the situation alone.
Support from other people can make a difference as well. A partner can choose not to drink during the pregnancy. Friends and family can stop making alcohol the centre of every social event, and healthcare providers can ask about alcohol use without making the person regret answering honestly.
These things may seem small, but they make the responsibility less lonely.
That fits particularly well with the 2026 FASD Awareness Month theme, “Everyone Plays a Part: It Takes a Community.” Alcohol-free pregnancies are not something we have to discuss as though the pregnant person exists in isolation. Partners, families, healthcare providers, treatment professionals, and communities all have a role in making healthier choices easier to make.
Awareness should lead somewhere
FASD Awareness Month gives us an opportunity to share an important message: there is no known safe amount, type, or time for alcohol use during pregnancy.
However, awareness is only useful if we do something with it.
For someone planning a pregnancy, awareness may mean choosing not to drink. Someone who drank before realizing she was pregnant may need to put down Google and have an honest conversation with her healthcare provider. And a person struggling to stop drinking may finally need to tell someone that this is harder than it looks.
The rest of us have a role here, too. We can respond to that honesty in a way that makes asking for help easier rather than harder.
Pregnancy does not suddenly make addiction simple. A person can love her developing baby and still struggle with alcohol. Both things can be true at the same time.
What matters is what happens next.
Centres for Health & Healing is here for you
At Centres for Health & Healing, we understand that problematic alcohol use rarely exists by itself. Our individualized addiction treatment looks at the whole person, including mental health, trauma, and the circumstances that may be contributing to alcohol use.
If alcohol has become difficult to control, asking for help is a good place to begin. Contact us to learn more about our alcohol addiction treatment and available support.
References:
- Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. (n.d.). Alcohol and pregnancy. PregnancyInfo.ca. https://www.pregnancyinfo.ca/your-pregnancy/healthy-pregnancy/substance-use-in-pregnancy/alcohol/
- Prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome (fas). (2003). The Canadian child and adolescent psychiatry review = La revue canadienne de psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, 12(3), 87–91.
- Cook, J. et al. (2021). Alcohol use, pregnancy, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in Canada. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice, 41(9), 264–272.
- Public Health Agency of Canada. (2025, June 19). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder.html
- Public Health Agency of Canada. (2026, May 21). Your guide to a healthy pregnancy. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/healthy-pregnancy/healthy-pregnancy-guide.html
- CanFASD. (2026, August 5). The global community prepares for FASD Month 2026. https://canfasd.ca/2026/08/05/the-global-community-prepares-for-fasd-month-2026/