missmuffins wrote:
I'm not defending Maci as I don't watch the show or care. But I know that the smell of alcohol repulsed me while pregnant and I'd never risk drinking and harming the fetus knowingly.

But to play the devils advocate think about all the women who probably have drinks before figuring out that they are pregnant and go on to birth healthy babies. FAS come from heavy alcohol abuse. Not a beer or two...

Or you could be like my cousin, who drank alcohol only until she knew she was pregnant, and wound up having a kid with a genetic condition likely caused by or exacerbated by the alcohol (I can't remember the name of the condition, but it wasn't fetal alcohol syndrome). And she wasn't an alcoholic or a super-heavy drinker, either. The child had major heart defects, has had multiple surgeries (including heart surgery immediately after birth), has moderate facial paralysis, had to be on a feeding tube for her first year of life because she couldn't swallow, and is mentally disabled.