November 21, 2009
Published: 10 Aug 09 08:47 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/21200/20090810/
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Even moderate alcohol consumption while pregnant can have detrimental effects on the health of the child, a new report from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health has advised.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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Your comments about this article:
Can't really understand how they can be explaining something so obvious, and still testing it.
Is Sweden really a country from the 1st world? I have my doubts more and more.
I can't believe alcohol is such an important matter in this society. I am ashame of seeing them when they are drunk and I am now embarrassed to think that they could even consider drinking while pregnant.
Any other studies we can do which everybody already has known the answers to for 10 years?
Maybe a study into the effects of the suns rays on human skin or can smoking affect your lungs?
Was the "incidence" 1% higher (possibly worth taking note of), 10% higher (definitely a 'sit up and take notice' number) or 0.001% higher (academic piffle that should be ignored)?
of course it harms the baby ... its already a known fact
did you lot just catch on?
How thick does the gene pool need to be ?
What are they going to do next, say that crack cocaine or LSD can effect pregnancies.
well duh ....
It is slightly difficult to find mothers that would agree drinking in a test group for 9 months and then see what happens. Whereas mothers that MAY agree to this - are probably natural alcoholics for few years before the pregnancy, therefore undermining the clean results. In addition in such a research one needs to trust whatever the mothers inform you about their drinking habits and not have a precise and measurable testing. It is also easy to say that mothers that drink during pregnancy could be usually uneducated or from difficult background, which could also explain behavioral problems with children.
There is no official study showing this yet, but it is not a good thing.
*thread closed*
What are behavioural problems? Don't you think that mothers who ignore all the current advice about drinking may not be the best mothers after the child is born? There may just be some correlation?
We in the west have a history of drinking alcohol going back millennia, there may even be some benefits of alcohol consumption to the child.
And the girl friend has been drinking ever since, and she is now 83, and still going strong.
As for me, I'm okay in these regards, and approaching 80 despite the efforts by my parents with alcohol, and that of the CIA with ricin. And my three siblings are still very healthy and very much alive, and two of them are older than me.
In sum, my anecdotal experience is that drink helps.
If 1 glass of wine can cause damage to an unborn child, then the next stage is not to go out or live by traffic where you will inhale exhaust smoke. Don't eat sweets due to the processed sugar. Don't get stressed as this will cause stress to your child. Don't do this, don't do that etc etc. We're living in a nanny state. Go to the UK and you will here different advice. Put simply, I think these type of statements are made for the stupid people who are probably smoking, drinking as if they we not pregnant. And 6 months later, weäll hear contradictiry info. again.
Put simply, if you have any intelligence between your ears, trust your instincts and if you want to be 100% sure, follow the advice. However, don't beat yourself up or blame any problems on drinking a glass of wine.
As a new Father, you're bomabarded with how to raise your child, but funnily enough, my Daughter didn't fall into most of the boxes that so called child professionals want to place them in. FOr God's sake, our parents and their parents did a very good job without all this BS info.
Take using moblie phones in cars as someone else did on another thread. Everyone knows that using a mobile while driving is dangerous and is prohibited in many countries. Here, it is not banned and therefore in the eyes of Sven, perfectly ok and so he continues to talk dirty to his girlfriend whilst tearing about the town centre in his Volvo.
Trowbridge, I like your style. I didnt realise that a 83 year old woman could be refered to as a girlfiend... Good for you man!
MiB it isnt rocket science mate. An unborn babies blood alcohol level is the same as its mothers. Alcohol is actually a poison (that why it is referd to as an intoxicant) so by drinking alcohol as a pregnant woman you are actually poisoning your baby. Now you may argue as to the degree of harm it does, but surely poisoning a child is not to be recommended even to a small degree. If someone were to give alcohol to a new born, there would be uproar so why do the same whilst its in the womb? Personally, I feel sorry for mother who have to refrain from drinking for a year or to, I couldnt do it! But thats just tough luck! If you want a baby, dont drink alcohol... end of!
As for the traffic polution, most people can control their intake of alcohol where as it is less simple to control what air you inhale. In an ideal world we would all be able to live in a exhaust gas free environment... it just isnt possible right now!
However I was reading Peter Nilson's study methodology and I had to stop, since I have found a "lead time bias": all groups were not selected at the same time.
"We divide the children born in the treatment counties in the selected cohorts into four groups depending on their exposure status: (1) those born prior to the initiation of the
experiment, and hence only exposed after birth; (2) those exposed to the experiment in
utero but conceived before the experiment started; (3) those exposed to the experiment in utero but conceived during the course of the experiment; and (4) those who were
conceived after the end of the experiment and who, as a result, were not exposed either
during pregnancy or after birth"
That's a pretty large difference in drinks/week: "little as one to four glasses of wine per week."
But I guess common sense is not all that common, I saw some pregnant coworkers drink cidre at a couple parties. Hmmmph.
I agree!
If so many things are so bad for us, how are any of us here? Lets face it, our parents, grand-parents and great-grandparents didn't have any of these studies to gain information from. They were totally reliant on their own intellect and common sense!
People drank, smoke, ate eggs, soft cheeses, shellfish and a whole host of things that pregnant women should not do and yet they had healthy full-term babies who repeated the process as adults, who again repeated the process etc. until it got to us.
All of a sudden things were "researched" and it was suddenly don't do this, don't eat that. Six months later a reverse report would be issued contradicting the previous ones! No wonder people don't have a clue what to do with such mixed messages!
I was diagnosed with severe iron deficiency whilst pregnant and told by the midwife to take iron tablets AND if I wanted to , to drink a glass of stout (guinness) with my evening meal. Now, if so-called experts in their field of work are prescribing such things, then does it make the surveys wrong or are these experts in anti-natal care wrong??
Makes me laugh to be honest that people are paid x amounts of pounds to state something that has been going on for donkeys, when they should be researching more into why we think its ok to stick rubber teats that contain toxins in a babies mouths (dummys and bottle teats) whilst shoving cows milk into newborns (which contains the organisms that cause mastitis (sp) (breastgland infections)!
Or how about why we push so much processed babyfood into our little ones tummies - instead of making our own food ?
Better yet, why so many feel its perfectly fine to let their 1 yr or younger baby be put in daycare so early just to go back to work.
If we want the best for our children I would suggest we dispense with the "alcohol is bad" surveys (which is a no brainer imo - by now everyone knows that excessive drinking is harmful) and start worrying about other things we do to children.
When it comes to alcohol, I have always associated it with what happens just before the evening meal, especially while watching the news. It is the high point of the day - what used to be associated with the only really pleasurable smoking.
When smoking tobacco has apparently proven to be even more dangerous than alcohol - what led people like me to give up smoking - the drink or two before dinner became even more important socially and even in terms of health.
I just cannot imagine having some insipid drink before dinner and continuing to survive. It in moderation is an essential part of my mental wellbeing.
The sanctimonious are really out in force today aren't they.