Alcohol and pregnancy

New guidelines have been issued by the UK's National Institute for Clinical Excellence, advising women not to drink at all during pregnancy - despite the fact that there is little scientific evidence that moderate drinking is harmful. In fact, even immoderate drinking - alcoholism - only causes foetal alcohol syndrome in five per cent of cases. So what's the harm in a little tipple? Sounds like yet another case of pregnant women being the targets of unwarranted health scares.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7313319.stm

Jennie Bristow puts it well: 'Women are not being told to give up all alcohol during pregnancy because of a health risk, but because to do so indicates that they have the right, responsible attitude to motherhood: not doing anything for themselves that might conceivably impact negatively on the baby in any way. That the government feels free to be so explicit about this is very bad news. Not only does it panic women unnecessarily, adding extra guilt to the already burdensome process of pregnancy; it also fuels a process in which the mother-to-be is being cast as someone separate to her fetus, and who simply by being pregnant puts her baby-to-be at risk.'

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3422/