There's bats in the belfrey the windows are jammed

[purplerabbits]

Now that's what I call justice! - Dodgy landlord ordered to live in one of his own dodgy buildings until it's up to code

Zoe William says exactly what I think about drinking while pregnant - except she's actually pregnant and not working for a children's charity so she's in a better position to get away with it. She has done her reading, though, which is refreshing and produced undeniably intelligent conclusions like:

Physiologically and sociologically, it just does not make sense that small amounts of alcohol are bad for you when pregnant. As Dr Eric Jauniaux, professor of obstetrics and foetal medicine at the Royal Free hospital in London, points out: "Alcohol is mainly metabolised by the liver, and only what's left will be met by the placenta. The amount that could reach the foetus in a glass of beer or a glass of wine is negligible. I would be much more concerned with breastfeeding and drinking." Jauniaux, incidentally, has been studying transfer through the placenta for the past 20 years, is one of the leading national experts on the matter and yet is never quoted in connection with any of the scare stories you read on alcohol and unborn babies. And sociologically, of course, Jauniaux reminds us: "How long have people been drinking wine or beer, thousands of years?"

And her more political conclusion: "Abstinence messages never work. Everybody knows they don't work, and I would go one further and say that social conservatives never intend them to work - they intend, rather, with their stringency, to effect a severance between the state and the individual. Don't come crying to us if it all goes wrong. We have already warned you to be perfect."

Well quite.

Comments

[zotz]

It's not meaningless, it's just not exact. And it may be inexact for good reasons. Sometimes giving people very precise instructions is counterproductive. There certainly have been very precise limits suggested in the past, and the change may have been deliberate and well-informed.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Plus, not all women are created equal. There's a great deal of variation in body size, general health and the rate at which alcohol can be metabolised. Setting a precise level and saying 'all women should drink no more than 2 units per day' would quickly be seen as reductionist nonsense.