If all they were doing was presenting information, and saying “There, now make a decision taking that into consideration,” that’d be fine, but they’re not. They’re telling women what to do.
People are already babysitting pregnant women like they lose their brains when they become pregnant, and this will probably make it worse. Bars have refused entrance to visibly pregnant women, without waiting to see what they ordered. So they didn’t have the ability even to go in and sit down with friends and drink a ginger ale or decaf coffee.
I think most responsible women these days stop or slow down on the drinking when they are trying to get pregnant, and they use BC when they are trying NOT to get pregnant. Doesn’t seem like such big deal to me. The thing is, if you wait until you know you are pregnant to stop drinking, it might be too late.
That’s true. It’s just that some women take years to get pregnant, while some women get pregnant in spite of using birth control. It’s not as cut and dried as “You use BC, and are safe, and can get plastered; stop using it, and get pregnant immediately.”
Depends on your state, but in most you are absolutely allowed to *drink *at 18, or even as a minor. Exceptions include at restaurants and with family. You can’t *purchase *alcohol, though.
As someone in public health, I can see both sides of the argument. That said, I think there are better ways to communicate the recommendation than what has been posted.
Why can’t this be “stop drinking alcohol if you are pregnant or reasonably likely to be pregnant”?
“Could get pregnant” is essentially any pre-menopausal woman who is sexually active, even if she’s using birth control. Because no BC is 100% effective, right? I think its vastly unhelpful to paint with such a broad brush.
I suspect the most important women to target are those who 1) drink excessively fairly frequently and 2) are at risk of not knowing they are pregnant until relatively late. Rather than trying to scare them off from drinking completely (which is not going to happen, let’s be honest), it would make more sense to encourage regular pregnancy testing in sexually active heavy drinkers if they have certain risk factors, such as irregular menstrual cycles that can make it difficult to suspect pregnancy.
What I think is we need a budget amendment saying, “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote alcohol control.” Where is the National Alcohol Association when we need it?
As my wife says, just think how WW II might have turned out if Hitler’s SS had been strong and healthy instead of the feeble, pathetic things they actually were as a result of all the beer and wine their mothers drank whilst pregnant…
That will work well. In each generation the population drops by a factor of what? at least 1/10 I’d say. And and even higher percentage of the babies will have FAS as all the pregnancies would be surprises.
Yeah, I agree. I used to smoke one cigarette a day (eventually I quit when my dog died- I used to smoke that one cigarette during our evening walk). A few people who knew this tut-tutted at me being a smoker and how dangerous it is, etc. During this time I once had a doctor’s appointment and she was reading my general medical history. She asked if I smoked, I said yes- one a day- and she cheerfully chuckled and said “Oh, that’s nothing…” I really, really liked her in that moment.
In response to the OP, this article sums up fairly well why the CDC report was so condescending. I like the part where she says “The most important fact about you is not that you are people but that you might potentially contain people one day.”
No. Because Lesbians can be alcoholics, but apparently post-menopausal women and Lesbians health isn’t a concern since they won’t ever contain a baby that one has to be concerned about.
Though the actual CDC poster is condescending across all areas of a woman’s life - not just her reproductive biology. Lesbians, presumably, can also be warned that their judgement is impaired after drinking. Or they could bang their knee on the coffee table when they are a little tipsy.
