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Alcohol: pregnancy and breast feeding
For women who are pregnant, are planning a pregnancy, or are breastfeeding, not drinking is the safest option.
- Drinking while pregnant can cause problems such as bleeding, miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth.
- When a pregnant women drinks, the alcohol crosses the placenta to the unborn baby. This can affect the development of the baby. This can include slowed growth and a range of physical, mental, behavioural and learning disabilities that are grouped under the term Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
- Alcohol reduces a mother’s milk supply and also passes through the blood stream into breastmilk. This may affect the baby’s feeding and sleeping patterns, as well as its psychomotor development.
For more information, please click on the Australian Drug Foundation's DrugInfo website link.
Last Reviewed: 07 November 2011
- DrugInfo - Australian Drug Foundation. Australian guidelines for low-risk drinking (Number 1.27, revised Jun 2009). http://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/fact-sheets/australian-guidelines-for-low-risk-drinking-web-fact-sheet (accessed Nov 2011).
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