I strongly dislike unsolicited advice. Being under 70 years of age, people feel the need to tell me what to do. A lot. Therefore, I can't imagine what it must be like to be pregnant, as when people see a lady with a massive bump on her front, they tend to shower her with advice. Advice she didn't ask for; advice she doesn't necessarily want. In The Guardian today, Zoe Williams has written a fantastic article about the advice doctors and the government give pregnant women, that may not necessarily be true. On Thursday in the UK, the government apparently advised that women shouldn't consume any alcohol at all during pregnancy, despite previously advising that the odd glass of wine was acceptable.
While everyone knows its not a good idea to go out and get completely pissed every night if you're pregnant, Williams points out that there is "no bona fide evidence for foetal harm at low drinking levels", and asks why the hell the government keeps scaring women into thinking that the consumption of an alcoholic beverage is going to harm her child.
Zoe Williams also discusses how doctors, midwives, and the government try to scare women away from certain foods, like sushi and goat cheese; threatening they could catch diseases such as listeria and toxoplasmosis from them. And what about caffeine? From what I've observed while working at Starbucks for 2 years, if a pregnant woman orders a coffee Frappuccino, she might as well have asked for a few grams of crack to be blended in because CAFFEINE IS POISON. In fact, one of my co-workers who was in nursing school would give pregnant women decaf, whether they asked for it or not. You know, because she knows best.
However, Williams points that there have been studies to prove that the women who drank up to seven cups of coffee a day while pregnant showed no differences in health of their child or delivery than strictly decaf women.
Her bottom line, is that pregnant women are grown-ups, and can make their own damn decisions, and can decide what is best for their children. As she says, it is not selfish to ask "Why?" when someone warns you to not have a cup of tea. People want to tell you what to do, because they don't trust that you know what you're doing: "They just don't trust you. But then, why should they? You are an absurd shape and you keep crying."
Cate Sevilla is the Assistant Editor of Dollymix, and regular contributor to Shiny blogs. She's not pregnant, but it sort of excited that she might be able to have an odd glass of wine when she eventually does get knocked up.
This is interesting because in the U.S. doctors and the general public has touted for years that you cannot drink while pregnant. There was a huge hubub when someone saw Gwyneth Paltrow drinking a glass of beer while pregnant and a subsequent "Oh those CRAZY liberal Europeans" debate. So thanks, London, you tarnished our all American sweetheart with your wild ways. :P
Thanks for pointing us towards that great article in the Guardian. Nice to see something well-researched and not scare-mongering.