# When Did The Medical Community First Conclude That Drinking While Pregnant Is Bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-medical-community-first-conclude-that-drinking-while-pregnant-is-bad/826933 "2018-12-30T17:29:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-medical-community-first-conclude-that-drinking-while-pregnant-is-bad/826933/21 "2018-12-31T18:13:53Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Yup. It is a cover-their-ass sort of thing. They do not know a limit so they set the limit to zero. No surprise there. Anything else could open them to liability. That can be restated as: They do not know a limit so they set the limit to zero. No surprise there. Anything else could be dangerous for the fetus. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-medical-community-first-conclude-that-drinking-while-pregnant-is-bad/826933/22 "2019-01-01T00:05:17Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Margaret Mitchell must have known some woman who drank during her pregnancy and gave birth to a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She describes it perfectly in Gone With The Wind: When Scarlett is pregnant with her second child, she drinks alcohol every night and gies birth to Ella, a child with no attention span who is described as “scatterbrained.” Sometimes old wives tales turn out to be correct. > [@steepone](#): > > In the 1940s there were no seat belts and no collapsing steering columns so even in a mild collision the driver was likely get hit in the belly by the steering wheel, I expect that is why pregnant women were advised not to drive That actually makes a lot of sense. > [@Folacin](#): > > …My mother reports that her doctor listed drinking, smoking, and coffee and told her to give one up. She gave up coffee, although she wasn’t a heavy drinker. My four brothers and I (averaging 6’2") blame her habits for none of us making the NBA. My older brother was born in 1972; her doctor advised her _not_ to quite smoking because the stress would be bad for the baby. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-medical-community-first-conclude-that-drinking-while-pregnant-is-bad/826933/23 "2019-01-01T20:52:21Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > these days they tell a expectant mother not to clean the cats litter box……. They have been saying that for at least 40 years. (Actually what they said was, wear gloves. But I let my husband do it and he didn’t mind. He still is the major cat-box cleaner and the baby is 23.) ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-medical-community-first-conclude-that-drinking-while-pregnant-is-bad/826933/24 "2019-01-01T22:19:11Z")
I’m 33 and my mother still has my father doing it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-medical-community-first-conclude-that-drinking-while-pregnant-is-bad/826933.md?page=1)