A European Pregnancy

In addition to the burden of carrying a child, pregnancy also carries the weight of unsolicited advice from everyone within earshot. Obviously the risks of fetal alcohol syndrome and low birth weight are enough to frighten most women away from drinking during pregnancy...but are these risks based on scientific evidence?

In 1973 the University of Washington identified a group of physical and mental symptoms that came to be known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Symptoms include delayed mental and social development in addition to a variety of physical characteristics specific to the face and musculature. This information led the Surgeon General in 1981 to call for a ban on drinking during pregnancy.

According to Dr. Ernest L. Abel, a professor at Wayne State University Medical School in Detroit, the National Institute of Health addresses only heavy drinking, the equivalent of five or more drinks per day. Ummm...even during my most leisurely days of college I wasn't coming anywhere near five drinks per day. How does a pregnant woman have the time and stamina to hit up that many happy hours?

Publications such as Parenting Squad have appeared to call out the misconception that all alcohol is dangerous to a pregnancy. They claim the National Institute of Health did not trust women to make the distinction between moderate and heavy drinking - and that they consciously introduced these scare tactics because of their lack of confidence in expectant mothers. They cite the Women's Wine Critics Board whose statement says..."Others, however, see this attitude as illogical and have concluded that the risks and benefits associated with light to moderate regular wine consumption compare quite favorably with most other activities of daily life."

In my perusing of available information on the net I was left with the general impression that as mothers become older and better educated, they are starting to question the wisdom of a ban on wine and privately partaking of a glass when the mood strikes.