feedback for "The Six Biggest Pregnancy Myths"

1. Have you ever met someone with FAS? Yeah, I didn't think so.
    
   That anyone would even risk the possibility of their child being born unable to live a normal life - unable to understand the basics of everyday life, unable to ever maintain normal relationships, let alone have a family - that really horrifies me. Who cares how small the risk is? There is still a risk, and I suggest that before you add in that daily glass of wine, you spend some time volunteering at your local FAS support centre, then tell me that your glass of whatever is more important to you than your child ever learning how to buy an object from a store.
   
   
   
   

   posted by : hamsterkid on 1/28/2008 at 11:10 AM Flag For Abuse

2. Ugh, again with the puritanical spouting.  If you don't agree with it you don't agree with it, but let others live the way they choose.  And your FAS child, how many drinks a day did the mother have?? I bet it wasn't one a week.  I live in a very large metropolitan area, which means I have a higher likelihood to be hit by a bus, or mugged, etc., should I move to the country?  In addition, my child also has the slight risk of a genetically inherited disease, should I have not gotten pregnant???  Ridiculous.
    
    

   posted by : Guest on 1/28/2008 at 12:08 PM Flag For Abuse

3. I drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes (both after I was through my first trimester), consumed caffeine (I did take it down to one tall coffee in the morning, as opposed to my usual 2-3), as well as ate soft cheeses and shellfish. I had absolutely no complications throughout my pregnancy and my beautiful daughter is 100 percent healthy, happy and two to three months ahead on her motor/cognitive development. 
   
   
   Moderation with everything is always the key to being healthy. 
   
   
   
   
   
   

   posted by : EatDrinkBeMerry on 1/28/2008 at 1:06 PM Flag For Abuse

4. If you can't put alcohol, cat feces,
   sushi and soft cheese on the back burner for  9 months, you probably don't
   have the staying power to be a parent.

   
   

   Get a gold fish, they barely require
   any care and as far as I know it's perfectly safe to drink, smoke and eat
   anything you please in their presence. They may not appreciate the sushi
   eating, but then again, 'who cares' ... remember it's all about YOU!

   posted by : mommyknows on 1/28/2008 at 2:13 PM Flag For Abuse

5. I see maternal consumption "risks" in two categories:
    
   1. It only takes one bad bite to screw things up.
   2. It will only hurt you if you over do it.
   
   
    
   In category one are things that might contain listeria and other infections that could give you a miscarriage or cause major defects.  I know they still eat non-pasteurized cheese in France, but its fresher there and it only takes one bad round of cheese.  I'll pass.  But go ahead and hand me that pasteurized soft cheese.
    
   In category two are alcohol, caffeine, and that sort of stuff that you really can consume moderately.  To the first commenter: studies involving pregnant women consuming moderate amounts of alcohol have found ZERO FAS.  As in none, nada, zilch.
   
   
   
   
   
   As far as things like Sushi, in moderation, if it is fresh stuff, I think you're good, but I would avoid consuming mass quantities of the higher mercury fish in cheap, landlocked locations.
   
   

   posted by : mamacali on 1/28/2008 at 2:29 PM Flag For Abuse

6. I'm French. I have two children.
   Just to tell you that in France too, authorities tell pregnant
   women not to drink one single glass of wine during all their pregnancy.
   
   

   posted by : Isines on 1/28/2008 at 2:35 PM Flag For Abuse

7. Please - the 12:08 pm poster totally misses the point.  Yeah, we can all suffer through pregnancy, we don't need any of those items (along with a myriad of others also on the caution list - caffeine, fish, peanut butter).  But the poster seems to suggest that somehow we ought to suffer to prove our staying power, without addressing the issue that much of these warnings are based either on myth or on recommendations that vastly exaggerate actual risk.  If you want to go ahead and suffer just for the sake of suffering and proving yourself, be my guest.  But it won't make you a better parent, and in all probabilty it won't protect you from having something go wrong with your kid. Most of the common things that go wrong and common illnesses cannot be traced to maternal behavior.  Being paranoid and avoiding anything that has an old wives tale associated with it doesn't really give you the control you think you have.  As the doc in the article put it, people (such as the first and 12:08 pm poster here) fundamentally misunderstand risk.  Your risk of killing your baby in a car accident is quite likely higher than your risk of killing your baby through consumption of blue cheese - yet I doubt very much you are avoiding driving, riding, or walking in traffic.  Get over your sanctimonious self. 
    
   That said, there are clear risk factors with data behind them - smoking, drinking to excess, taking drugs, having unprotected sex with random strangers.  But we're talking about reasonable, adult behavior in this article.  Having a piece of sushi or a glass of wine once a week ain't shooting up or getting drunk.

   posted by : riskybusiness on 1/28/2008 at 2:35 PM Flag For Abuse

8. Please consider removing your use of the word Folklore as being synonymous with "myth" or "false."  Folklore (when the term is understood correctly) is and does consist of very important, and quite real sets of cultural understandings for different groups of people.  It is also a well established and long standing academic field in this country and world wide (see: http://www.afsnet.org/). 
   
   

   posted by : cat5768 on 1/28/2008 at 2:36 PM Flag For Abuse

9. One glass of wine/beer might not hurt an unborn baby, but there are many people who don't stop at one. As someone with a family history of alcoholism, I don't think it's a good idea to tout the idea that "just one" drink of anything alcoholic won't hurt.
    
   Same with cigarettes, sushi, soft cheeses and anything else that might be harmful. Why risk it?
   
   
    
   
   
   
   
   

   posted by : whyriskit on 1/28/2008 at 3:49 PM Flag For Abuse

10. Right, whyriskit, women are all secret alcoholics, unable to understand the difference between a glass of wine and a bottle. They are too stupid to understand moderation and caution.
     
    This is what bugs me. The condescension. The infantilization. The idea that women are too dumb to take the time to read the cheese label to see if its pasteurized or not, so we should just say "no. None at all. Suffer and feel noble sister."
     
    And to the poster who said that anyone who has a glass of wine while pregnant should just get a goldfish cause they're going to suck as a mom? Guess what? I'm thinking a kid's better off with someone who takes the time to do research, educates themself, and makes a safe informed decision than one that blindly follows authority. But hey.  

    posted by : mcglory13 on 1/28/2008 at 4:15 PM Flag For Abuse

11. whyriskit - I would question "many people."  I think the majority of women in the US completely abstain from alcohol, which for some probably takes considerable will power, I would think that "many" of them would be able to have "just one."  There's a difference between harm from just one and the risk of not being able to contain it to one.
     
    There are so many things that "might be harmful."  Why spend your pregnancy, a time that you should be happy and enjoying the life that is growing inside you, worrying about everything flipping thing?  From the research/reading that I've done, stress has a lot to do with complications in pregnancy, why add unneeded to worry to that?
     
    I'm going to have my diet coke, my cup of coffee, and the occasional glass of wine and not feel bad about it at all.  And mommyknows, I would think more than having the ability to abstain being a measure of "staying power" as a parent, I think the ability to do research and make informed opinions and decisions, even if they are against the "norm", that are best for your family a better measure.

    posted by : cooper1178 on 1/28/2008 at 4:20 PM Flag For Abuse

12. mcglory13, you are my hero!!

    posted by : cooper1178 on 1/28/2008 at 4:21 PM Flag For Abuse

13. I think it's strange and obsessive to focus so much on fetal risk... I mean, we don't tell parents of newborns not to drive to Grandma's house, right?  We know that there's an inherent risk in getting in the car, but we understand that all of our actions carry some risk.  I thought that was the writer's point.
     
    When I was pregnant and doing my own research, I was struck by how often I would hear or read, "if there's even the smallest chance, why risk it?"  I think there are a lot of good reasons to take risk -- the very first being that you're never going to be able to CONTROL your child's environment; you might as well get used to living in the actual world -- the world that has danger around every corner.  Right? 
     
    Sure, we don't want to harm our babies.  We make every reasonable effort to provide a safe environment.  It's reasonable to eat healthy and nutritious food.  It's not reasonable to suddenly abstain from a single drop of alcohol.  And frankly,  it's pretty superstitious to think that if only we don't eat sushi, nothing bad will ever happen.  I think pregnancy is a great time to start getting over the fear.

    posted by : Joanie on 1/28/2008 at 5:03 PM Flag For Abuse

14. I liked the tone and intent of the article- doubtful the author is
    encouraging any pregnant woman to go tie one on.  Seems a rationale, common-sense approach.
    
    
    
    One bit of clarification on a misconception I often hear about the
    French.  I'm an American living in France, had my first child here and
    am pregnant with my second.  The French recommend ZERO alcohol during
    pregnancy (and in my experience during breast feeding, too).  In fact, the govt. has a poster campaign promoting zero
    alcohol and tobacco for pregnant women.  Pregnant women get the same list of things to
    avoid- shell fish, raw meats, unpasteurized cheeses (which of course in France is huge).  They test MONTHLY for toxoplasmosis, and are less concerned
    about one catching it from kitty doo-doo versus from raw veggies.  I've
    heard of more American doctors telling their patients that an
    occasional glass of red wine is fine, especially after 25 weeks, but
    I've never heard of that in France, even though I came here secretly
    hoping to get the green-light-on-wine-with-dinner. Which I did, from the American doctors.

    posted by : hambutt on 1/28/2008 at 5:45 PM Flag For Abuse

15. I looked up the British recommendations (from the organization in the article) and they considered revising their recommendation and changing it to "no alcohol at all" in a 2006 study that reviewed all the current findings linking alcohol use during pregnancy to various outcomes, and they decided that the evidence does not suggest a link between moderate drinking and health problems for the fetus/infant.  They define moderate drinking (and recommend): no more than 1 or 2 units of alcohol twice a week.  So that seems accurate, even if the French have changed their regulations.

    posted by : Britalcohol on 1/28/2008 at 6:39 PM Flag For Abuse

16. Actually I have met someone with FAS. And I understand that the FAS he had was caused by his mother being a chronic, severe alcoholic - not by drinking one glass of wine a week with dinner.
    
    
    
    
    
    Pass the pinot grigio!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    posted by : Combermere on 1/28/2008 at 6:54 PM Flag For Abuse

17. When I was pregnant, I was extremely frustrated that my doctor didn't know the difference between pasturized and unpasturized cheese (she just said "no" to all soft cheeses, including ricotta, cream, and cottage. I also made the mistake of asking if I could have just a sip of my husband's drink on occasion (we were traveling out of the country, and I really didn't want to completely miss out), so now it's in my file that I tried to "bargain about alcohol". 

    posted by : Zdoggie on 1/28/2008 at 7:26 PM Flag For Abuse

18. As a nurse-midwife, as well as a mother, I can definitely appreciate both sides of the argument here. (although I think the especially sanctimonious posters are way out of line!). I am actually pregnant right now with my second (my first was born 5 years ago in Africa, and I won't even go into the things I ate when I was pregnant with her.....a perfectly healthy child, btw). But I was surprised by the level of fear induced in women around these issues; and of course, like all parenting issues, people are extremely sensitive.
    I personally (and professionally) embrace almost all things in moderation - for myself, of course, and for my patients - whom I have taken the time and gotten to know (including a detailed history and physical which includes family history for such things as peanut allergies or alcoholism). Of course not all practitioners (especially high-volume OB/GYN practices) have this luxury, in which case I could see why they might make blanket recommendations about things to avoid - to cover their asses! God forbid a Dr. gives her patient the green light for something 'risky' and the woman has a bad outcome - even if it is for some completely different or unknowable reason. That woman could end up forever blaming herself- or her doctor - for whatever it was. 
    Just a thought.

    posted by : nzenzele on 1/28/2008 at 8:57 PM Flag For Abuse

19. Zdoggie, I would totally switch doctors!  Unacceptable!

    posted by : Dwtintx on 1/28/2008 at 9:28 PM Flag For Abuse

20. I am a little unnerved...Generalizations like that made in your article give people free reign to loosely interpret what is said in order to justify what they want to do.  If a woman cannot give up alcohol for 9 months (just 1 of the MANY sacrifices a woman will make for her child in his/her lifetime) perhaps she should rethink whether or not having a baby is right for her at that time.  I am a NICU RN and I think statements like "Oh, relax!  All of the children described in the original paper on FAS were born to severe, chronic alcoholics..." are reckless. "No level of drinking alcohol has been proven safe during pregnancy."  See March of Dimes.  Please research before posting information.  
    
    
    From MOD website:
    
    
    

    What is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)?
    
    FAS is one of the most common known causes of mental retardation, and the only cause that is entirely preventable. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that between 1,000 and 6,000 babies in the United States are born yearly with FAS (3).

    
    

    Babies with FAS are abnormally small at birth and usually do not catch up on growth as they get older. They have characteristic facial features, including small eyes, a thin upper lip and smooth skin in place of the normal groove between the nose and upper lip. Their organs, especially the heart, may not form properly. Many babies with FAS also have a brain that is small and abnormally formed, and most have some degree of mental disability. Many have poor coordination, a short attention span and emotional and behavioral problems.
    
     
    
    The effects of FAS last a lifetime. Even if not mentally retarded, adolescents and adults with FAS have varying degrees of psychological and behavioral problems and often find it difficult to hold down a job and live independently (3)

    
    
    
    

    The CDC estimates that about three times the number of babies born with FAS are born with lesser degrees of alcohol-related damage (5). This condition is sometimes referred to as fetal alcohol effects (FAE). These children have some of the physical or mental birth defects associated with FAS. The Institute of Medicine uses more specific diagnostic categories for FAE, referring to the physical birth defects (such as heart defects) as alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD), and to the mental and behavioral abnormalities as alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorders (ARND) (6).

    
    

    In general, alcohol-related birth defects (such as heart and facial defects) are more likely to result from drinking during the first trimester. Drinking at any stage of pregnancy can affect the brain as well as growth (5).

    
    
    

    posted by : rockin mama on 1/28/2008 at 10:23 PM Flag For Abuse

21. Guys, I'm French, I was pregnant three years ago and a former journalist, I can triply assure you that the policy here is NO ALCOHOL!!! At all. It is the same with tobacco.
    Regarding food, we get recommendations, but since we're French and love eating, I have not yet met a pregnant lady who told me she could resist sushi, cheese and "charcuterie" (sausage, ham etc)!!!
    
    
    
    

    posted by : Bitsou on 1/29/2008 at 3:55 AM Flag For Abuse

22. The point is also, that the info can be misleading.  I've been reading a lot on this subject lately because I'm pregnant for the 3rd time and REALLY want sushi.  Basically, I've found that if the sushi is frozen and then thawed, any parasites that were in the fish are now dead.  Does anyone ever tell you to check that???  I really don't think that there are any tuna or salmon within non-freezing distance of my neighborhood, right?  BUT, during my research into this, I read that it's actually much easier to get Listeria from cold cuts, which is much more dangerous than parasites from sushi.  (About which, the only argument is that they "might fight with your baby for scarce nutrients."  Can I have sushi with lots of vegetables so both the parasites and the baby get fed?)  Also, which restaurants are the cleanest?  Basically, I could be in a spotlessly clean sushi restaurant and get fussed at for endangering my baby, when a turkey sub served at a not-so-clean deli seems perfectly okay, if I'm following the rules the doctor gave me.  I also usually end up with gestational diabetes - the same people that would dive in front of me to stop me having a glass of wine or a rainbow roll will say, oh, you can have a little cake, can't you?
    
     
    Also, when you've had more than one baby, you start to notice things - with my first, she COULD NOT have solids before 6 months, the  second was told he MUST start at four months.  Same doctor, two whole years apart. 
    
    
    
    I don't drink or smoke and I would gladly never eat sushi again for my baby, but I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that maybe that's not actually necessary.   The smartest thing I've heard given up in pregnancy: one of  my friends gave up talking on the cellphone while driving.  That probably cuts out  WAY more risk than anything else discussed here.  Also, my oldest is the only 10 year old in her school still in a booster seat. 
    
    
    

    posted by : Spicy Tuna on 1/29/2008 at 10:26 AM Flag For Abuse

23. Thanks to mcglory13, cooper1178, riskybusiness and Joanie ... it's good to know there are other reasonable people out in the world.
    
    
    I figured my comments would stir the pot and cause a bit of sanctimonious commentary like the posts from mommyknows. Too funny, really, considering our generation's parents' doctors never warned them about consuming alcohol, smoking cigarettes, etc., etc., (I'm sure the argument here will be "because they didn't know any better"), yet we all seem to have turned out just fine (ever seen an episode of "Mad Men" on AMC?). 
    
    
    
    And for those who are reading these posts who think absolutely no alcohol should be consumed during pregnancy, what do you have to say to the doctors who PRESCRIBE it to pregnant women in their last trimester? Are they incompetent doctors putting their patients at risk? Or perhaps our society has become so hypersensitive about EVERYTHING that we cannot trust individuals to think for themselves in a rational manner? 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    posted by : EatDrinkBeMerry on 1/30/2008 at 1:13 PM Flag For Abuse

24. I do think there is a middle ground. Many of the prohibitions are simply about reducing the risk of food poisoning, and I think this article does a great job of being rational about that.
     
    Alcohol is a tricky matter, because alcohol is a substance that was not in the blood stream of humans during the great majority of human evolution (having only been discovered in the last 10,000 years or so). As it turns out, our livers do a great job of removing alcohol from our bloodstreams in a matter of hours, but fetuses do not have functioning livers. When did research on this last year, I encountered references to two different european studies that linked light drinking among pregnant women (half glass to whole glass per day, or even 3 or 4 days per week) to an increased incidence of learning disabilities 12 or 14 years later. So in other words, kids may "come out fine," as people love to say, but its very difficult to quantify whether there are any adverse effects in the longterm.
    
    
     
    People make a very reasonable argument that stress, which releases the damaging hormone cortosol, may be worse for the baby ... this could be true. It also may turn out after another decade of studies that these worries are misplaced. But I don't think it's fair to conclude that anyone who cautions against drinking is fear-mongering or off their rocker.
    
    
    
    
     

    posted by : chattydaddy on 1/30/2008 at 4:07 PM Flag For Abuse

25. There are substantive scientific links between high mercury consumption and autism, as well as alcohol and learning disabilities (distinguishable from full-blown FAS). Having said that, there is such hysteria on the subject of what is safe for pregnant women. It ceases to be helpful (or even accurate) when it is personal opinion presenting itself as medical fact.
    One of the most galling articles I read actually stated that even one drink at conception caused a negative impact for the fetus. My own pregnancy was unplanned, and I did drink before I found out I was pregnant. So what good would that article have done me? And why take a profound, and sometimes scary, event in women's lives and then make them sweat EVERY DETAIL over what they eat or drink or do? I recall reading my OBGYN's literature on pregnancy safety at around 6 months and realizing that I had probably done at least 20 things on the list. (Keep in mind, this is the same line of b.s. that stated, "Many women are surprised at how comfortable a first-time, undrugged [a.k.a. no pain medicine for you, bad mommy!] birth can be", so I take it with a grain of salt.
    Women should simply examine the straight science and decide for themselves. Pregnancy is hard enough without the constant guilt-trips.

    posted by : CrysBellis on 2/3/2008 at 1:15 AM Flag For Abuse

26. I didn't drink a drop of alcohol while pregnant, but things have gotten out of hand when you have women who want to be mothers calling their physicians sobbing because they just found out they're 7 weeks pregnant and had a few drinks in the weeks before finding out, and think that they now have to consider aborting a wanted child. And it happens. A lot. So much that the Canadian health ministry revised its advisories, in fact.

    posted by : ladyv on 2/5/2008 at 2:32 PM Flag For Abuse

27. i ate sushi while i was pregnant- and it was ok'd by my doctor as long as i had eaten at that establishment before and was confident i wouldn't get food poisoning. of all the things on here, the one i would be most adamant about is hair dye. my partner is a chemist and works for a dye company. the dyes he creates for major hair coloring lines are extremely toxic. he wears a respirator, safe suit, takes hot showers after he leaves the lab, and cringes whenever i touch up my roots.

    posted by : amandamaren on 12/5/2008 at 12:42 PM Flag For Abuse

28. I thought that this was a great article...I ate sushi while pregnant with both of my children, and they are both fine.  I only abstained from the occasional glass of wine because even one sip gave me terrible heartburn!  We need to calm down and stop being so judgmental here in America.  I do not know about France, but I know that Italian women have the occasional glass of wine or beer, and they typically are very cautious in general.

    posted by : sushilovinmama on 3/3/2009 at 4:54 PM Flag For Abuse

29. Hello, I'm French and French women never drink alcohol  -including wine- while pregnant! This is such a stupid cliche! Everyone knows alcohol is truly bad for your future new born's health, and even if you consider us (French people) retarded, you'd better check on what you think before writing such bullshit!
    

    posted by : Aurelie on 7/26/2009 at 9:34 PM Flag For Abuse

30. I really appreciate the main point of the article, echoed by several comments:  a paternalistic medical establishment is treating women like we're too stupid to make well-reasoned, informed decisions about our babies' and our own health. 
    
    This galls me because my experience is that most of the medical personnel passing on the kind of advice mentioned in this article, even they themselves don't truly understand the underlying scientific facts.  This happens not just with pregnancy but across the medical field.  I've found that doctors who have actually read and understand the research AND understand my individual situation give much more constructive advice than those who are just parroting the latest bulletin. 
    

    posted by : Rina07 on 8/20/2009 at 1:49 PM Flag For Abuse

31. Mommyknows-
    
    Goldfish are actually one of the more challenging freshwater fish to raise for the beginning aquarist. They produce way more ammonia than other typical freshwater fish (think bettas or neons), and people often think they are a success for getting it to survive a year because they don't know their actual life span can be up to 7 years!
    
    Considering how much you spout about animal husbandry without sufficient research, you probably shouldn't have a kid.

    posted by : finsplints on 8/20/2009 at 3:35 PM Flag For Abuse