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/

So pg women in the states never drink? Or smoke? Or drink tea/coffee/coke?

Mindles
this is actually what it says

If you are pregnant, don't take a chance with your baby's future; stop drinking immediately. If you have tried to stop and find that you just cannot seem to give it up, help and support are available.

jj131 - I thought it sounded extreme. I have a good mental picture of police officers trying to wrestle chocolate bars from pregnant women

What I am saying is that we have our own researchers and doctors in this country who do their own studies and reach their own conclusions and the advice they give out is based on that. To say that American experts know more than British ones is a bit arrogant don't you think?

You know, repeatedly saying "just read it" is not actually an argument.

Have you read the article I linked to? The one that says the US government should be focusing on at risk groups, rather than creating a moral panic? "Just read it."

And now I must away, as you are clearly not interested in debate, merely lecturing us with your moral superiority and maligning our medical profession.

Yes Leati, which for an alcoholic is about the most dangerous thing they could do. For a lot of people, they require medical supervision to stop drinking because their bodies become physically dependent on the alcohol.

Morning LL!

(sssh, I've parped on this thread! )

leati as i have previously said, there are LOTS of things in life that are potentially dangerous to a foetus.

life in itself is dangerous.

we either accept it and take moderate precautions or we start it incubate pregnant women in glass chambers.

to me life experiences, both good and bad are necessary to the foetus for all round development.

I was travelling through America and Canada when pregnant with dd1 and I must say you do scaremonger

your Pregnancy magazines (with which I was obsessed, natrually, PFB syndrome etc) were full of doom and gloom

and full of ads for stem research and saving your placenta (or something or other)

and obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene

ggglimpopo

There are women who do all of those things. There are women who have babies born with crack in thier system. The difference is, it is not socially acceptable here. And if the baby is born with alcohol or drugs in thier blood, they are taken away. The parents then have to work with a social worker to get thier baby back.

Leati, you might be interested to know that many well informed, educated english women think of the American ideas as ignorant, ill informed and based on no real evidence.
Just beacuase you have swallowed the rot you have been fed does not mean you will tempt us with it.
We are given plenty of information regarding the potential risks of alchol abuse during preganany, however, unlike the US, we are also given access to logical, balanced interpretations of the statistics provided.

well said nightshade
dont agree with getting wasted or a couple every night even
but a couple of drinks a week is fine

well said nightshade
dont agree with getting wasted or a couple every night even
but a couple of drinks a week is fine

respect to US citizens but this is not the US

oliveoil

It is not the placenta they are saving. They are banking ambilicord fluid. Most parents don't do this but the ones who do usually have a family history one of many diseases. The ambilicord fluid can save the child's life, if it becomes ill with the disease.

Leati can I assume all four of your children were born completely naturally and you had no painkillers at all for your labours?

Because the drugs they give you during childbirth can cross the placenta too.

As other people have said, you are simply being quite rude now with the aspersions you are casting about our health professionals and medical services.

Malaprop -- I'm so sick and tired of you all painting us Americans as non-coffee drinking, diet-coke-shunning, chocolate-abstaining heathens .

Just kidding. I didn't think you were having a go at all! Just wanted to add my 2 cents, er, I mean 2 pence.

SweetyDarling

This information is well researched. Research shows that small amounts of alcohol affect an unborn fetus.

Would you give your new born a sip of wine?

Diet-coke-shunning? This is a new one on me, didn't you guys invent the damn stuff? What's wrong with diet coke?

i find it difficult to believe that you support a nation that automatically and without consent checks the blood of a newborn infant and then immediately takes it away from its mother if alcohol or drugs are present.

what about the child's needs for its mother?

is america trying to create the elite race?

no abnormalities, no chances no digression from the party line, have you read orwell?

Leati, I am sure that you are not suggesting that it is socially acceptable to take crack whilst pg in the UK. I am sure that is not what you meant. I think the occasionally glass of wine is quite different to what you refer to in your last post. I would suggest that rather than using google for your research, you at least use google scholar or an academic resource such as pubmed to make sure you are getting the properly researched, peer reviewed and accurate picture.

I find it terrifying how things are going in America regarding legislation over pregnant women. Women are being jailed for drinking or taking drugs during pg - usually women with a drug or alcohol problem - charged with child abuse of their unborn child.

I think most reasonable people are aware that if you do have a drug or alcohol problem then threats are not the best way of treating that condition. Instead of support and help to stop, they're being put in prison and their children removed!

The whole thing about signs in restaurants and waiters refusing to serve pg women is shocking. Treating women like walking wombs and taking away control over their own decision making. It's shocking.

This kind of scaremongering makes it so much easier to do this, to take away womens rights to control their own lives. In some of that stuff leati quoted it actually says all women of child bearing age should stop drinking in case they accidently become pg. Can you see the way this is going? Taken to its conclusion women between 18 and 47 could be banned from drinking!

Yes, there is a problem with fetal alcohol syndrom - babies born to alcoholic mothers - alcoholism cannot be treated by threats and guilt trips, it needs proper thought out treatment and care.

alicet - have explained my cryptic comments on the thread about similar names rather than boring everyone here

Actually leati often one of the first signs that a woman is pg (before she has gone public) in the UK is when she starts refusing alcoholic drinks. I have speculated many times to myself about women being pg when they start asking for orange juices and usually been right.