To be disappointed in hearing that many UK woman drink during pregnancy [shock]

[Leati]

Yesterday, I was on a thread when some of the women started questioning about US policy on drinking alcohol during pregnancies. One of the women had heard that if you have a glass of wine, you could be arrested. I assured her that wasn't true but there was chance that if you were visibly pregnant that the restaurant or bar might exercise their right to refuse service. And if a pediatrician became suspicious of drug or alcohol abuse, they could have the baby?s blood tested at birth. If the baby is found to have these in their blood, the child will be taken away. Another woman pitched that she found it disturbing that restaurants had signs warning pregnant women.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. These women seemed to believe it was actually okay to drink during their pregnancies. Hadn't they heard of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. So today, I did a little research and was shocked to learn that it is a big problem in the UK and that there is little education about it there.

Women who are angry over mothers choosing the bottle over nursing are damaging their children by drinking alcohol. This is not minor damage, in some case it is equivalent to severe mental retardation and in others it less obvious cognitive problems. Overall nearly 10% of babies born in the UK are suffering from some sort of cognitive problems directly related to alcohol exposure in the womb.

What broke my heart the most is that I have been on this site and I know that the mothers on this site care so much for their children. That while I may not always agree with everything said and our perspectives are not always the same, that we share a common love for our children. So I felt compelled to start this thread and share the information. I hope that you will share it, with your loved ones and it may spread.

I have attached some sites so you can research this yourself. These sites are both from the UK and the US.

www.fasaware.co.uk/

www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/west/series2/fetal_alcohol_syndro mfaspregnancydrinkinglearning_difficulties.shtml

www.healthychildrenproject.org/glossa ry/

bobsmum

Ah but you don't know what nationality we all are!

May I educate everyone...

"Main Entry: con·de·scend
Pronunciation: "kän-di-'send
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French condescendre, from Late Latin condescendere, from Latin com- + descendere to descend

to assume an air of superiority"

Leati is evidently living in a fantasy world where she has to save the British from their own stupidity. Must be a challenge for her as she is clearly unable to read or comprehend any conflicting arguments...

Bloody hell, the freaks on here really do out themselves eventually, eh?

farking hell its taken me 40 minutes to read this gem

in answer to the op...

yes you are being unreasonable

and condescending

and sanctimonious

and rude

and offensive

and blinkered

and........

YAWN

If you are planning to use Mumsnet for research, don`t you have to pay a fee to the people who run it?

LOL Loveangel

I thnk she's gone to bed. phew

So really do you think she is going to be cutting and pasting US from now on

READ THE LINK
of 56 mumsnetters, when confronted with a ranting loopfruit 23 parped, 4 saw her point, 3 couldn't spell umbilical cord and 58 opened a bottle of a delicious little chablis

pmsl paqwatch

?I don't know what to say. When I first got on here tonight, I thought it was simply a case of not knowing. Now I am beginning to think it is a case, of wanting to believe whatever advise lets you do as you please.?

Pot Kettle Black Leati

The vast majority of women disagreeing with you on here are intelligent women who are well read and well researched as they would never take unnecessary risks with their unborn children. Please stop patronising us and acknowledge that we have the right to assess the risks and come to an informed decision. This does not make us bad or reckless parents.

Over and out ladies ? I?ve had enough of being patronised and preached at and told that UK doctors are illeducated and illinformed ? I?m a UK doc Leati. Of course that will probably reinforced your extremist views about our healthcare system.

And 30, who being pregnant and abstaining from the evil potion, decided to have a drink just to piss her off..... if I was pg that's how I would have felt anyway but I never grew up and am still a rebel

Leati - please do use spell and grammar check prior to seeking publication of any material. We wouldn't want your credibility to be undermined!

I don't believe you are seriously thinking of contacting the press about this, but if you are you should try the tabs first as don't think the broadsheets will be interested (not in UK anyway). If you are serious, you have been disingenuous - nice!

Are you a born again Christian or a fervent member of another religious order? Sorry, no intention to insult any other mners - but I am genuinely interested.

maybe a JW.....

Ladylush - read Leati's profile.

How does one do that? I'm not very intelligent you see Actually, I have never looked at anyones profile but will toddle off now and see if I can find it. Ta ra

Click on the little yellow book icon at the right hand side.

Hmmmm,

(Sorry but going to have to say it despite the fact that I have skimmed over a lot of this and am sure I am repeating someone else.)

In my own personal and doubtless illeducated opinion this is a silly debate. It is abundantly clear that the odd alcoholic drink in pregnancy does not cause FAS as described in the children of alcoholic mothers. It may well be true that there are an enormous range of minor symptoms that may be affected by the odd alcoholic drink consumed by a pregnant mother but there is simply no way of accurately ascribing these minor symptoms to a specific cause as it is not possible to control for all the other potential causes.

Since being pregnant I have variously been told that I should not be filling my own car with fuel on the basis that the fumes may be damaging; that I should not be using my normal skin creams as these may expose my unborn child to carcinogens; that I should be doing both more and less exercise (on the basis that the increased bloodflow is good for the baby and on the basis that the rise in my core body temperature is bad for it); that I should be eating exclusively organic food as we cannot show that the pesticides used in conventional food production are safe; and that I should be using different household cleaning products in order to reduce the chances of my child developing alergies.

This is all in addition to the long list of official advice given to me by my midwife and GP. As far as I can tell these all come into the category of "well we can't really prove a link but why take the risk?".

So if I drink a glass of wine and have a cup of coffee and eat a bit of brie and have some potentially not properly washed salad in a cafe and do fill my car up, don't change my face cream or domestic cleaning products and continue to exercise as I see fit and my child subsequently turns out to have ADHD or dyslexia or just be slightly below average in some way how will I know what to blame? Where will be the geneticaly identical child with a different gestation for me to compare it with?

Frankly if this is really what we expect form pregnant women to make then good mothers I am quite happy to resign myself to be a bad one before I am even one at all!

Not overly scandalous btw!!

Just looked at it. Well no mention of religious order but am very disturbed by the Pink and Kenny Rogers, not to mention the romance novels. Mind you, she's a game gal - first one at 16

Quite FCH. Easier to start off with low expectations

Well said FCH - I did all those things during pg and both mine are fine. Just don't listen and go with your own gut feelings, you'll be a fantastic Mum with a laid back view and happy dcs; I have no doubt.

very succinct post FCH

[[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?rn=63239&topicid=2724&threadid=358141&redir=63239 see this new thread]

sorry
see this new thread