Is cooking with wine safe during pregnancy

What does the evidence say about cooking with wine or alcohol during pregnancy?

1. No amount of alcohol, including what remains in a cooked dish, has been established as safe during pregnancy. 1
2. Alcohol crosses the placenta quickly, with fetal blood alcohol levels approaching the mother's within about two hours of drinking, and it clears more slowly from fetal circulation than from maternal blood. 2
3. Prenatal alcohol exposure risk runs from before conception through the entire pregnancy, with no safe trimester identified for any amount of alcohol. 3
4. A large NIH-funded study of nearly 12,000 pregnancies found that alcohol use on its own was linked to a higher risk of late stillbirth, and the risk climbed further when combined with smoking. 4
5. Major health authorities recommend complete abstinence from alcohol throughout pregnancy rather than trying to estimate a small safe amount, the same standard that applies to alcohol added during cooking. 2

Is cooking with wine or alcohol safe in each trimester?

• First trimester. In the first trimester, when the fetus's organs are forming, even trace alcohol is worth avoiding, so handle a recipe calling for wine or spirits the same as a drink and skip it or ask your provider first.
• Second trimester. By the second trimester, the same no-safe-level guidance still applies. If you already ate a dish made with alcohol before thinking it through, a small amount from cooking is a much lower exposure than drinking a glass, but check in with your provider if you're worried.
• Third trimester. In the third trimester, alcohol still crosses the placenta and clears from fetal circulation more slowly than from yours, so the safer approach for a wine-based sauce, glaze, or holiday dish is a non-alcoholic substitute.