The Weighty Responsibility of Drinking for Two (Great NYT Article)

[NashVegas]

IT happens at coffee bars. It happens at cheese counters. But most of all, it happens at bars and restaurants. Pregnant women are slow-moving targets for strangers who judge what we eat — and, especially, drink.

...

So those of us who drink, even occasionally, during pregnancy face unanswerable questions, like why would anyone risk the health of a child for a passing pleasure like a beer?

“It comes down to this: I just don’t buy it,” said Holly Masur, a mother of two in Deerfield, Ill., who often had half a glass of wine with dinner during her pregnancies, based on advice from both her mother and her obstetrician. “How can a few sips of wine be dangerous when women used to drink martinis and smoke all through their pregnancies?”
...

“If a patient tells me that she’s drinking two or three glasses of wine a week, I am personally comfortable with that after the first trimester,” said Dr. Austin Chen, an obstetrician in TriBeCa. “But technically I am sticking my neck out by saying so.”

...

Proof, it turns out, is hard to come by when it comes to “moderate” or “occasional” drinking during pregnancy. Standard definitions, clinical trials and long-range studies simply do not exist.

...

Many women who choose to drink have pointed to the habits of European women who legendarily drink wine, eat raw-milk cheese and quaff Guinness to improve breast milk production, as justification for their own choices in pregnancy.

Of course, those countries have their own taboos. “Just try to buy unpasteurized cheese in England, or to eat salad in France when you’re pregnant,” wrote a friend living in York, England. (Many French obstetricians warn patients that raw vegetables are risky.) However, she said, a drink a day is taken for granted. In those cultures, wine and beer are considered akin to food, part of daily life; in ours, they are treated more like drugs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/dining/29preg.html

[Dervill Crow]

1. Interesting article!

It goes back to the adage "all things in moderation."

My 26-year-old daughter is pregnant and immediately cut her tobacco use from a pack-plus per day to two or three cigarettes, but she is having a hard time completely quitting. She and a group of our friends were over for a Jane Austen movie marathon Saturday, and when she ducked out for a cigarette one of my friends lit into her, "Don't you know you're smoking for two? Don't you know you're making your baby smoke?" I had forgotten how many people seem to think a pregnant woman's abdomen is public property and available for patting, rubbing, ogling, or editorializing.

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. God, when I think of what our mothers used to do....

My mom griped that I was OK as long as she was walking around, but the minute she wanted to lie down and sleep, I starting practicing my gymnastics.

She said a couple screwdrivers at night kept her sane.

I have around a 149 IQ. No worries there.

Although I'd be curious to know if it might have contributed to me acquiring MS.

[NashVegas]

4. I Have to Wonder About MS

And whether or not there's an environmental link. Alcohol has been around for millenniums, but the MS explosion is fairly recent, AFAIK. Best of luck to you.

[fudge stripe cookays]

5. Thanks.

I have never seen it mentioned in books on the subject as a causative agent, but it would be interesting to know.

[XanaDUer]

3. I once worked with an older lady

whose daughter, (who became a doctor, btw) was HUGE when she was born, like 14 pounds or something. The mother was rather petite.

When she was relating her daughter's birth to me and her large neonate size, she said, "Good thing I smoked, huh?"

:D