‘A risk I don’t want to take’
The decision was simple for Melissa Mendoza, 29, who is pregnant with her first child.
“I feel like [not drinking alcohol] is a safer option for my baby and I feel like it’s a risk I don’t want to take.”
For her it was always a given that she would not drink alcohol while pregnant. “I’m aware of the risks and the consequences of it,” she said. “I don’t usually drink much anyway so it’s not a huge change for me.”
Mendoza, who is due in November, said most of her friends have similar views and were all supportive of the decision.
Jackie Prichard agreed it was not worth the risk. But for her it was a lesson learned the hard way.
When she fell pregnant with her son 17 years ago no one told her of the dangers of drinking while pregnant.
“I cut down. I never got drunk while I was pregnant. I didn’t know that alcohol was such a problem. It was only on the odd occasion but I did drink all through my pregnancy on and off.”
When her son Alex was 2 they started to realise there might be something wrong but it wasn’t until he was 8 that he was diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
“It was like a kick in the stomach. I was thinking, ‘well, I did this’,” she said.
Prichard said she now spoke out to warn people it was not something which only affected alcoholics or binge-drinking teenagers.