No alcohol for women of child bearing age !

I read a newspaper headline which said WHO wanted to ban women of child bearing age from drinking alcohol. On reading the article it was clear that WHO are suggesting more advertising of the dangers of drinking alcohol whilst pregnant - not a ban. Deliberate provocation by newspapers?

International health organisation suggests public health campaign dissuading younger women from drinking.

Controlling women! Sexism! No point in having them!

You don't think it could be part of the drive to discredit the WHO do you? ?

There is no point of having a WHO if they are going to come up with such stupid proposals, heavy drinking or drug use is obviously bad, occasional light drinks do no harm at all.

My own view is that alcohol should not be available in food shops - separate off licences only, restricted like cigarettes are.

When you start talking about women "of childbearing years" it does sound a bit Handmaid's Tale.

It’s really about controlling women, I think, and not the well-being of babies.

No matter how you look at it the WHO report was suggesting that women of childbearing age should not drink acohol. To which the obvious question must be that alcohol affects men's semen as well and what is sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander.

What makes this suggestion so odd, is that we now have almost universal safe and reliable contraception. So successful that world average number of live births per woman has fallen from 6 in 1950 to 2 in 2020 ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate.

This means that nowadays most women of childbearing age only have short and planned time spans in their childbearing years when they are likely to conceive. Yes, there will be unplanned pregnancies but relatively few, otherwise the birthrate would not have fallen as it has.

In which case, what is effectively an alcohol ban until the menopause is totally unnecessary. The advice we have now, to avoid alcohol when attempting to conceive and in pregnancy is quite suffiicent

When I was first pregnant, we had a neighbour who was forever asking us to sample his home-made booze which was horrible. I had a heaven-sent excuse for saying, 'No, thank you'. However, the odd half-pint of bitter seemed not to have harmed DS1 who was the best of babies.

PippaZ

I still think it's surprising anyone is surprised. Younger people seem to be very averse to drinking when they are pregnant so I assume they have had the information for many years. Even when I was pregnant 100 years ago (or so it feels) it was explained that we should drink very moderately.

Yes, but this isn't referring to pregnant women Pippa, it's all women of child-bearing age!

Sorry, the quote in my post Thu 17-Jun-21 22:20:22 should have been:

Why do people jump to such ridiculous conclusions?

Then it makes sense.

I still think it's surprising anyone is surprised. Younger people seem to be very averse to drinking when they are pregnant so I assume they have had the information for many years. Even when I was pregnant 100 years ago (or so it feels) it was explained that we should drink very moderately.

Read the advice, rather than the inflammatory reporting.

Because people like to find something to be angry about?

I read them all. The OP says the WHO want to ban alcohol. They don't. Whether is a draft paper or not, they're not proposing to ban alcohol. People are getting agitated about something that hasn't happened.

Alegrias1

Then you will know that nobody's banning anything, are they?

and did you read my post?

Then you will know that nobody's banning anything, are they?

Alegrias1

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

Read the advice, rather than the inflammatory reporting.

I did read it.

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

Read the advice, rather than the inflammatory reporting.

Alcohol apparently increases your risk of breast cancer. But banned? Surely women should be advised about it, same as men really.

I think this has been the advice for some years. It's come up recently in The Archers where one of the storylines is about one of the younger character's problems with alcoholism.

Foetal alcohol syndrome is a terrible thing. However, this seems a step too far in the desire to control female reproduction.

Watched GB news tonight and doctor pointed out that male sperm can be affected by alcohol so why aren’t men of child rearing age being told to lay off the booze as well? This is sexism.

unprintable! This was discussed on MN this morning....This is a published draft paper so its not WHO policy yet....I reckon its a toe in the water and I also reckon that toe will get bitten off.