Drinks firm to pay for mid-wife training

[meditrina]

BBC story here.

Does anyone know exactly what is happening here? Surely alcohol in pregnancy is covered in existing training?

[Tolalola]

I agree, it seems very odd.

I mean, how much time and money does it really take to educate traineee midwives to advise 'no more than 1 or 2 units, once or twice a week'? It's not bloody rocket science.

[alexpolismum]

I wonder what the point of those statistics is. It says, for example, that 4% of women did not change their drinking patterns. What does this tell us? Not very much. For example, I did not change my drinking pattern at all during pregnancy, but since I have perhaps 4 glasses of wine a year I didn't think it was an issue.

[Tolalola]

I wondered the same thing alexpolismum. The figures don't really mean much at all.

And despite all the scaremongering, television programmes etc. I would be very surprised if there were many pg people out there who drank excessively during pregnancy because they honestly had no clue that it was a bad idea.

Those drinking heavily during pregnancy likely have much wider-reaching issues with alcohol that will continue to be a problem post-partum.

[nomorefrizz]

Midwives definitely do advise on alcohol consumption during pregnancy. I found it slightly ridiculous that they didn't do a bit of research before putting this out. We refer women on a regular basis for relevant help but most women have already given up as soon as they have found out to be fair.
I don't think I have ever met a pregnant women who hadn't got the message about drinking in pregnancy. Even alcoholics know they shouldnt be drinking.
I think should be targeting booze culture generally but then wouldn't be in drink industrys interests.

[EasyFriedRice]

I was totally put out by this news story, as I think pregnant women are so often treated like they've got the brains of mice anyway, I mean, how many seriously don't know not to drink in pregnancy?

I got so angry I did all the research into facts and figures about drinking in pregnancy and wrote about it in my blog here (have named changed for this post as blog gives out lots of RL info).

What is worth considering is that women who continue to drink heavily during pregnancy probably have a myriad of social problems, making it hard for them to give up (smoking, drug use, deprivation etc) which an information leaflet won't help. So if the money is spent training midwives to give psychological interventions and support to these women, it may be a good thing.

[HHLimbo]

This government are wilfully ignoring the concept of 'conflict of interest' across the board. This concept is well established and respected in the business world, so I wonder why they are not aplying it to government?

Where do these millionaires in the cabinet keep their money - is it in shares? Hmm in which companies I wonder..

[HHLimbo]

When private companies (who are legally obliged to maximise profits for their shareholders) are allowed to influence government policy making, we can expect 3 things;

1. the policies will be ineffective,
   
2. they will be used for PR,
   
3. they will allow the company to evade legitimate, effective regulation of its activities.