[dimtimjim]

Is anyone else a bit shocked and disgusted by the news this morning....? 'its ok to drink a little whilst pregnant'..... Really?

Is it just me, but this is your *ing child, surely the single most important thing to happen in any persons life, no? Why risk it? Either way your playing an odds game, why push them against you?!

Look, I know i'm a man, and as such its potentially not an issue for me given i'll never be pregnant no matter how much I try, but its my view that to intoxicate your body with poisons while carrying your child is just wrong. And maybe i feel so strongly on it as my ex refused to quit somking whilst carrying my (our) daughter and it sickened me and worried me. Thankfully she suffered no ill effects, but is it worth the risk. I'd happily give up drinking for 9 months in a supporting roll as a gesture of good will. Its no massive loss. Although I have now completely quit, I have never smoked in front of my daughter, I always used to go outside, or stop the car and get out etc etc. Its your jeffing kid for *'s sake.

[Yudster]

I'm not disgusted by today's report. I've never smoked so that was never an issue, although that idea DOES disgust me.

When I was pregnant I always felt so crappy that drinking wasn't an issue - but, after the first three months, if I felt like having a drink occasionally I would. And if you'd like me to define "occasionally" - well, I wouldn't have ever had more than one drink on any occasion, and probably not more than a couple of occasions a month realistically. There's absolutely no evidence to suggest that drinking at that level, after the foetal development is complete (after the first three months everything is there, its just got to grow) has any detrimental effect at all. There IS however evidence to suggest that small amounts of alcohol can be beneficial in cases where blood flow through the placenta has been compromised for some reason.

People just need to use their common sense and stop relying on "health watchdogs" to tell them what to do.

[DevilsDuck]

But "a little" to my family would be a small glass of wine with sunday lunch, to a chav on a council estate "a little" may be just the one 3ltr bottle of cider per day!

Its not worth the risk in my opinion

[MK Chris]

I agree about the smoking, but that's not what the report is about - agree with Yudster about the drinking, in small amounts like that it does nothing wrong.

[Nicola_Red]

I'm childfree so I have no room to comment. But I think just accepting something cos it's the received wisdom is usually a bad idea, it's always good to be open to new ideas. After all, at one time doctors advised overweight people to smoke instead of eat dessert.

[Yudster]

But "a little" to my family would be a small glass of wine with sunday lunch, to a chav on a council estate "a little" may be just the one 3ltr bottle of cider per day!

Its not worth the risk in my opinion

Risk of what? Risk of harm to the baby? If you have brain enough to understand and apply commonsense to it there IS no risk, that's the point. I'm not talking about a "chav on a council estate" here, maybe those are the people who these health watchdog guidances ARE issued for (although what's the point, they won't take any notice) - I'm talking about reasonable, normally intelligent people who have something of an understanding of what is and isn't good for them. Your "chav on a council estate" is going to do what they do whatever, you won't influence them with government reports and health warnings.

[DevilsDuck]

ok

[Yudster]

You could tell I was shouting couldn't you.......sorry.

[Latina]

I don't smoke so that wouldn't be an issue, but as for the drink, personally I'd find it easier to go cold turkey than restrict myself so heavily. Not that I'd be unable to stop after one drink or anything; just that it's easier for me if I make a proper effort and resign myself to a full (temporary) lifestyle change.

I'm sure the occasional one drink a few weeks in couldn't do any harm, but I'd find it easier to pretend it would and stay off altogether. Which I suppose is what the health watchdogs really want us to do anyway.

[Boboff]

Absolutley, these people know so much better than me, what is good for me, and what is good for my Wife and her children, we are all so stupid arn't we, out to cause harm where we can.

Well, they can go * themselves. I don't want to live forever, I do what I want and enjoy it, I am a caring and repsonsible adult who loves his family and would not want to see them hurt.

In breaking news it has been discovered that eating too many pies and sitting on your arse makes you fat, poking your self in the eye with a sharp stick hurts, and that if you have a body living inside you, what you digest can effect that child, but only if its something which is above the normal tolerance level of the bodies wonderfull system.

Eating Chocolate and one glass of Red Wine whilst talking on a mobile phone, especially if you are 32 and called Alan or Fiona can increase the risk of your Nursing Home being called Green Acres by 7%. FACT

[dimtimjim]

You could tell I was shouting couldn't you.......sorry.

EDIT: Love bob's input too! Nothing like a good hard FACT to put a smile on your face.....

[Yudster]

I don't smoke so that wouldn't be an issue, but as for the drink, personally I'd find it easier to go cold turkey than restrict myself so heavily. Not that I'd be unable to stop after one drink or anything; just that it's easier for me if I make a proper effort and resign myself to a full (temporary) lifestyle change.

I'm sure the occasional one drink a few weeks in couldn't do any harm, but I'd find it easier to pretend it would and stay off altogether. Which I suppose is what the health watchdogs really want us to do anyway.

I think thats a good way to look at it, it often is easier to just stop completely for a defined period of time. I just object to the way that so many people now think that you HAVE to do that or you're harming your baby.

There are loads of stupid "rules" like that surrounding health in pregnancy which people now think are vital, and they aren't at all - things like not eating liver. The point is not that you musn't eat liver when you're pregnant, its that massive overdoses of vitamin A can cause foetal abnormalities. Massive overdose. Like if you eat liver three times a day every day and also take vitamin A supplements type massive. But people now think that nobody can EVER have liver when they're pregnant. Such a crock of shit, the whole liver ban idea is based on ONE single mega-extreme case, and now because one woman was addicted to liver no one is allowed to eat it if they're pregnant.

Also, I love you Boboff.

[DevilsDuck]

You could tell I was shouting couldn't you.......sorry.

yep!

But by risk, I didn't mean the risk of drinking, I meant the risk of telling people they can drink

Sorry, didnt explain myself very well and got you angry

[Yudster]

........by risk, I didn't mean the risk of drinking, I meant the risk of telling people they can drink

So we should lie to everyone just because some people are too stupid to understand simple concepts like moderation?

[Munki Bhoy]

I'm just glad there's scientists out there trying to find out what the truth is. After that it should be up to each individual how they want to raise their child, from impregnation onwards. Bloody pregnancy nazis.

[DevilsDuck]

........by risk, I didn't mean the risk of drinking, I meant the risk of telling people they can drink

So we should lie to everyone just because some people are too stupid to understand simple concepts like moderation?

No, I meant that stupid people will always do the stupid thing and normal people will always doing things in moderation.

[Yudster]

But they don't, a lot of the normal people aren't doing things in moderation, they are denying themselves perfectly harmless experiences like a glass of wine, or a slice of liver, because they are having it dinged into them that its harmful for them to do so!

[Boboff]

Don't you think though, that it's these 30+ first Mums though that are the problem, they are all, oh I can't be in the same room as some camembert, is that Brie in your beard, don't come near me, lets sit and meditate in a pool of Monkey piss, listening to the Pheotal beating of a Dolphin, and telling everyone how very * hard it is, and getting love support and undertsanding from there husbands, and spending shit loads on Next baby clothes, and three wheeled walkers, and going to swimming lessons with a load of other fat pregnant well off Sandra's, moaning that they won't get child benefit now because Dave is like so in the upper tax bracket.

My wife was 21 with our first and cooked fudge up until she was 8 months gone, when she got home and made the Tea after shopping she would phone me at the Pub to say that Tea was ready and she was just finishing the Ironing, I would say I want Liver with a Blue cheese Sauce and Mayonaisse or I ain't coming home, bless her.


Still, you were lucky!

[Yudster]

I did the pregnant thing in my twenties and then again in my late thirties/early forties - the older ones are no worse than the younger ones, pregnant women, especially "middle class" pregnant women, are the single most BORING group of people you could meet. Closely followed by mothers of small children, again of any age. I kept my sanity by avoiding any activity with the tag "ante-natal" attached to it and afterwards by not getting sucked into the competitive child-rearing environment of the Mum and Toddler Group circuit.

[Boboff]

Very Wise.

My sister is not well off, but happens to be in a GP surgery where there are allot of "Sandras'"

She does all these groups and had 70 people to the 1st Birthday party, they have lunches at each others houses etc a couple of times a week, and my Sis bless her moans that some of them think Lunch is a Pringle and a grape!

I try and avoid being sucked in a competitive child rearing environment as well, I didn't think such competitions still existed, and there were definately child protection safegaurding measures in place to possitively discourage these things!

Oh well, ,what happens in Colchester stays in Colchester.

I'm in NORICH.

[Yudster]

What IS this with people doing birthday parties for 1 year olds? What the hell is the point of that? One year olds don't have a clue what a party is, they don't care what they're doing as long as they're entertained. These things are just an excuse for parents to show off and to accumulate masses of presents for their (probably) spoiled offspring. They are another thing I never used to go to. Apparently at my niece's (which we were invited to as my niece is just 10 days older than Baby Yudster and they wanted to make sure they got a present from us) half the mums were pissed on Pinot Grigio before the end of the afternoon and three sober mums were left looking after twelve babies or something. Horrible occasions.

[DevilsDuck]

er.....I think its to celebrate the birthday! we had 1st birthday partys for both our kids. It was just for family though and not an excuse for a piss up

[foot-loose]

Am I allowed to take heroin when I get pregnant?

[DevilsDuck]

I think it might help to get you pregnant

[CassieJackson]

er.....I think its to celebrate the birthday! we had 1st birthday partys for both our kids. It was just for family though and not an excuse for a piss up

We had a 1st birthday party for family and it WAS an excuse for a piss up I think Yudster meant the parties where people invite 30 other 1 year olds in the hope of getting lots of pressies.