No alcohol for women of child bearing age !

An addendum: no ban has been mentioned as far as I can see!

I did not drink alcohol whilst pregnant but certainly did both before and after - I'm now 5 1/2 years without alcohol for which I am truly grateful. I found that returning to alcohol after the birth of my two sons gradually built up to the point where I became concerned with my intake - hence kicking it into touch. I think the media encourage drinking by the style of their advertising - associated with having fun- same as they used to do with smoking "cool as a mountain stream" ... now we know that the latter certainly is not cool and I suspect, hopefully, we will learn that alcohol is equally damaging if not more so as it affects relationships and self-esteem when taken to excess. However, I'm not in favour of banning people from drinking - education is the way forward.

Lin663

From my understanding it was nothing to do with having babies…it was about the risks of drinking alcohol at that particular age …increased risks of disease…presumably if it was just as risky for men in that age bracket they would give similar advice for them….and let’s face it folks, advice is just that …you do not have to take it if you don’t want to….smoking causes all sorts of nasty diseases and we are advised not to, but people still do it…

It actually says "women of childbearing age" The link is there and its overt....no mention of men of childbearing age and sperm damage.

From my understanding it was nothing to do with having babies…it was about the risks of drinking alcohol at that particular age …increased risks of disease…presumably if it was just as risky for men in that age bracket they would give similar advice for them….and let’s face it folks, advice is just that …you do not have to take it if you don’t want to….smoking causes all sorts of nasty diseases and we are advised not to, but people still do it…

Some of the newspaper accounts seem fairly misleading, but it does not look as if WHO is attempting to ban women from drinking.

No doubt they realise that this would be impossible.

There is really nothing much new here, as far as I can see. We have been told for years that consumption of alcohol can make it more difficult to conceive and result in babies that are less healthy at birth. The same applies to smoking.

Sperm too is affected by many things, alcohol being one of them.

Obviously, not all women of child-bearing age want children,
those who do probably accept medical advice regarding laying of drink when starting a family.

The broader picture here is that in many countries of the Western world a large percentage of both men and women do tend to drink far more than is good for them.

Preventing alcoholism is in itself a worth-while aim, but not one that can be achieved by scaremongering whether about sterility, impotence, cancer or diabetes being caused in full or partially by too much drink.

I think that’s hysterical to be honest. I don’t drink at all, never have purely because I don’t like the taste of alcohol plus I don’t like not being in control of my own body, but I cannot for the life of me see this happening. I’m more annoyed that literally every day we wake up and someone somewhere has dreamed up new rules and regulations. I’m sick of it, not a day goes by where there’s not something suggested. Some do gooder dreams something new up......women have been having babies for thousands of years.....men have been drinking alcohol for hundreds of years too and so far as I can tell who has it harmed?

Surely any alcohol is bad for everybody? At least it’s not any good for anybody?
Isn’t educating everyone a good thing?
Of course WHO are not suggesting a ban; they’re suggesting better education and awareness. Isn’t that the right thing to do?
Why is alcohol necessary anyway? I’ve never understood the need!

Aepgirl

There’s a big difference between ‘enjoying a drink’ and alcoholism. Sadly the first can be followed by the latter. I would consider it more important that mothers of young children abstain from alcohol for the safety of their child.

And fathers surely.

The WHO draft paper advices the prevention of drinking for both pregnant women and women of childbearing age. It is only advice, and we are well aware of the pregnancy advice, but the inclusion of women of childbearing age reeks of the Handmaid's Tale. WHO can't mandate it but there are a number of countries that would love to.

I found this on Twitter....can you say "backpedal as fast as you can?"
twitter.com/BBCWomansHour/status/1405536963852070912?s=20

There’s a big difference between ‘enjoying a drink’ and alcoholism. Sadly the first can be followed by the latter. I would consider it more important that mothers of young children abstain from alcohol for the safety of their child.

katy1950

Here we go again the media are stirring the waters again as if things are bad enough

But the media in this case are not stirring! The report is out there and apart from "WHO banning" because they can't, the base facts are true.

MarjieM

It’s disgraceful that it’s even under discussion. By what right can they do this. There are plenty of women of child bearing age who don’t want to bear children.
I agree that women who are pregnant shouldn’t drink, when I had my children I didn’t touch a drop, because I knew it would be harmful to my baby. That was 50 odd years ago. So how come the WHO need to stick there noses in now.
Are they trying to prove how necessary they and their pay cheque are ?

Allegria is at least partly right in that the WHO can't "do" anything except produce reports and make recommendations. Back on 2015, they produced a report about red meat and processed meat being a cause of cancer. I don't think that globally it had much effect.

Here we go again the media are stirring the waters again as if things are bad enough

My first reaction was are we in Saudi Arabia.my second was equally so for men which would mean a lifelong ban for them and a rush for womb removal for women instead of sterilisation.
Health advice is one thing. Obviously excessive drinking of alcohol has health risks on everyone.
Are they doing a paper recommending a complete blanket ban for ever more.

Alcohol ban before posting on social media is another recommendation. My true political feelings are always less restrained after an evening tipple.

The actual draft actually says that its published/written...can't remember the wording...but withoout cultural or religious bias, but I don't see how it can be because beliefs and biases are ingrained.
Off topic but interesting is that one of the ISA providers who I invest with is looking at giving investors ethical, social and environmental information about its investment funds. I am on their customer panel so they send us drafts of stuff to review and comment on. In the ethical section, there are aspects such as fossil fuel use and renewables use....but also alcohol production....several of us commented that we would rather invest in alcohol production where employees are well treated rather than slave produced clothing...and why no mention of plastic production or globally damaging agricultural practices......

Alegrias1

Good lord, nobody's banning anything. Why do people jump to such ridiculous conclusions?

Read the advice, rather than the inflammatory reporting.

people are getting agitated....
But language used in your post is contributing to everyone's agitation Alegrias1! Surely you see that?

It’s disgraceful that it’s even under discussion. By what right can they do this. There are plenty of women of child bearing age who don’t want to bear children.
I agree that women who are pregnant shouldn’t drink, when I had my children I didn’t touch a drop, because I knew it would be harmful to my baby. That was 50 odd years ago. So how come the WHO need to stick there noses in now.
Are they trying to prove how necessary they and their pay cheque are ?

Jillybird

Are there only men in the WHO?

ha...I checked this. It seems like the majority are. I don't think we can blame the whole of the WHO though as this document was the work of a subcommittee and is only (so far) a published draft.....also its not a body of people who WANT to be there. Every member country is entitled to nominate a representative and, as i understand it, statements and papers may be produced that do not have unanimous or even majority support. The rep for the UK is Chris Whitty and I bet he had no hand in this, although he probably has evidence based views on alcohol use during pregnancy and excess alcohol use at any time by anybody.

If I am honest when WHO returned from their fact finding mission to China announcing that the start of Covid in Wuhan and a lab 4 miles away experimenting with the virus were just coincidences I ust didn't believe them and lost all respect for them at that point.
You would think they had better things to do with their time than making sweeping statements about who should and shouldn't consume alcohol. People should have access to the facts and be able to make up their own minds without this nanny state kind of interference

In the 70 s when I was pregnant we could already be 8 weeks or more pregnant before we even knew. No diy stick tests then. Doctors diagnosed this.
So, firstly a missed period, then a wait for 2 weeks or so in case it was late, make appointment to visit Gp for examination and Urine test )related to doing something to toads,) another wait week or so and then back to the gp. to get the results.
It took ages and until pregnancy was confirmed drinking and smoking carried on as usual. So you could already be two or even three months pregnant before you knew anything unless you were unlucky enough to feel sick etc and I was lucky there. I had none of those unpleasant symptoms.

I haven’t read the report, only seen the inflammatory headlines. Everyone is aware these days of the advice to pregnant women that they should avoid alcohol, but it seems this new WHO advice is to all women of childbearing age to avoid alcohol. If I’m understanding it correctly, then I can’t agree with this advice. Women who are trying to conceive or are pregnant are advised, and probably should, avoid all alcohol, but it seems extreme to advise all women of childbearing age to avoid all alcohol. Somehow I don’t see this advice being followed.

They used to recommend Guinness for building up your milk supply back in the day. Some happy mummies in those days.

It does make me wonder about the composition of those in authority at the WHO, in terms of religion. There are many groups throughout the world who ban or discourage members of their religion from drinking.
However I do think that drinking immediately before conception or during pregnancy is to be discouraged, though not everybody is aware that they are about to be pregnant as Visgirl implied!

I wasn't planning to be pregnant with my first so was not staying off the alcohol. We went away on holiday during the first weeks, before we knew I was pregnant, and being on holiday I drank significantly more than I would otherwise. I remember feeling very woozy after a lunchtime drink on a hot day. Once I knew I was pregnant I cut down, though I drank small amounts throughout - a small glass of diluted wine. After I had my baby, who was completely unharmed by my alcohole consumption, I continued to drink wine diluted as I found I prefered it that way!
Suggesting banning drinking for those of child bearing age is ridiculous as many women choose never to have children and even when women fall pregnant unexpectedly little or no harm is done in most cases. Think about how much drinking goes on underage then magnify that for all the women who'd be affected and you would be criminalising a huge proportion of the population. And think of the effect on the economy if everyone complied - the government would never agree to such a ban!