Anyone else today's 'Observer' headlines about alcohol in pregnancy?

[atalantis]

I'm 14 weeks, and for the last 4 weeks or so I've been allowing myself one glass of lovely red wine on a Saturday night. I look forward to it every week; should I really have to stop? I'd be interested to hear your opinions...

Expat, it happens here already. Cafeteria staff at work questioning whether grated cheddar cheese on a baked potato was "good for the baby." Coffee shop staff saying, "oh you're still drinking caffeine?" and giving me a skeptical look.

Feckers. None of their business. I have a cold at the moment and a very red scabby nose and I work in a business where "social" cocaine use is common. When people ask me what's up with my nose, I've been considering telling them I've been doing too much gack just to see the looks on their faces.

Totally with you, 12 year gap. All my mates are at it: 'Oh are you MEANT to be eating that parma ham?' and 'Are you SURE I can't persuade you not to have the prawns'?

(1) It's my body, and I will choose what I do.

(2) Yes, there's a baby in there, and I wouldn't want to harm it for the world, but it's MINE.

(3) I would never dream of limiting your choices.

AARgh!

Tell them they have to earn their stripes if they want to be the pregancy police.

It would really piss me off if my friends started doing this. Are they going to be so solicitous about babysitting when your LO arrives?

Unlikely. Once the baby is out they won't have a clue. Pregnancy just seems to make you public property.

It's nice when people ask you how you are, tedious when they want to tell you what to do.

Just written the letter to the Observer as suggested below, but I imagine it will be too late for them to publish (bit of a busy week this week!)

I once had a student of mine say (to someone else about me) 'surely she shouldn'tbe drinking coffee while bf?'

expat, that's one of the things I found about the What to Expect book. 'Ask yourself: Is this mouthful good for my baby? If the answer is no, don't eat it.' Or something along those lines. (OTOH the book hardly left my side in my pg with ds as it described all the conditions I paranoidly imagined myself getting).

I have several times had people simply not pour me a glass of wine when they poured them for everyone else

just btw, and i haven't yet got sufficiently angry with this whole 'issue' to try and find the original research reports myself, but i believe that the current NICE guidance re total abstinence is based on a study of ?20 chronic alcoholics who self-reported their drinking levels during pregnancy: their self-reported drinking levels were compared with the number of children born with FAS-spectrum disorders, and lo, a panic was born. was there a control group? don't think so. had they factored in to their analysis that one of the things chronic alcoholics do is under-report their alcohol consumption? don't think so. as with the testing and licensing of medicines, it is extremely difficult to do double-blind clinical trials on pregnant women: the fact of the matter seems to be that whilst there may be a risk to unborn babbas from their wicked, wicked mama's taking of the demon drink, this risk cannot be reliably assessed or predicted, and is just one of the many risks that are, imho, part of being alive.

quite apart from the dubious scientific basis of much 'scientific' advice, i was walking down oxford street this pm and was assailed by the noxious fumes of taxis and buses at every step - surely the black snot caused by travelling round london tahn is indicative of a dangerously high level of air-borne pollution to which women are exposed on a DAILY and unmeasurable basis? perhaps we should all stay indoors for the duration, where we won't cause any trouble or get into mischief...