‘I can’t serve you. You’re pregnant”
 

I recently discovered a group in the alcohol industry had launched a controversial new campaign to warn expectant mothers of the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. The group apparently initiated the campaign after it was lambasted for not displaying warning signs on labels prominently enough.
 

This post on SMH.com.au explains:
 

AN alcohol industry group will launch a campaign today to warn against drinking during pregnancy, after it came under fire over the low visibility of health warnings on drink labels.
 

DrinkWise Australia’s new campaign is backed by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and features a foetal medicine expert, Alec Welsh, who advises women that ”drinking no alcohol is the safest choice for your baby”.
 

The promotion follows findings revealed by the Herald that DrinkWise health warnings had reached fewer than one in six alcohol products, a year after their introduction. The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education commissioned the survey, which also found most warnings to be barely legible.
 

Source: http://www.theherald.com.au/news/national/national/general/new-warning-over-alcohol/2647281.aspx

 

Surely mothers should know by now the damage their drinking is doing to their unborn child.
 

A recent study by The Centre for Disease Control in The USA showed that drinking during pregnancy was the leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities in children. Drinking not only damages the unborn baby but can also increase the risk of miscarriages, the study also showed. It was also the leading cause of premature birth or still born babies.
 

While some of the effects are demonstrated in childhood, sadly others may present themselves during adulthood such as developmental delays, learning disabilities, behavioural problems, mental illnesses and some effects that were displayed in childhood were heart defects, problems developing normally, low birth weight. Therefore it is recommended that pregnant women as well as breast feeding mothers avoid consuming alcohol altogether. The risks are too great and the effects can be long term.
 

I recently came across this post on Theage.com.au which highlights an incident where a server refused to serve alcohol to a pregnant woman. What exactly is the responsibility of the server? Did the server act correctly? Maybe this post can provide some insight:
 

Dining with a friend in California last month, a member of popular parenting website BabyCenter was aghast when a waitress refused to serve her alcohol because she was pregnant.
 

 “My friend ordered a glass of wine and before the server walked off, I said I would like one as well,” she wrote. “She said she can’t serve me. I said, ‘My OB says a glass of wine in moderation is ok.’ She replied that she has heard that before and still refused to serve me. I was flabbergasted, embarrassed and downright p*ssed. I ate my meal with my friend and decided not to make a scene. When I got home that night I looked up the law. Essentially she violated my civil rights, and discriminated against me.”
 

 The incident set comment feeds afire, with impassioned arguments from both sides of the great moral divide as to whether restaurants have the right to refuse service and, indeed, if one should indulge in even the occasional tipple while pregnant.
 

 The hotly debated post was published the same day the findings of a Danish study on the effects of low and moderate drinking in early pregnancy were made available. In the research, doctors from Aarhus University Hospital and the Institute of Public Health, Medical Psychology Unit at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, looked at the incidence of adverse neuropsychological effects among five-year-olds whose mothers were recruited from the Danish National Birth Cohort during their first antenatal visit – with 1628 women taking part.
 

Defining lower levels of alcohol consumption as one-to-four drinks per week, moderate as five-to-eight and high levels as nine or more, and classifying binge drinking as five or more drinks in one sitting, researchers found that low-to-moderate weekly drinking in early pregnancy had no significant impact on IQ, attention span, or executive functions such as planning, organisation and self-control. They also discovered that high levels of alcohol were associated with lower attention span.
 

 However, the study authors stress that the amount of alcohol in a standard drink varies significantly from country to country and conclude that the most conservative advice for women is to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy.
 

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/i-cant-serve-you-youre-pregnant-20120710-21sob.html#ixzz239GwORFl

Posted by Peter Cutforth