Interesting article about alcohol use and pregnancy, and the volatility of the issues that have come about since Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was identified.
When Janet Golden was kicking around in utero 53 years ago, pregnant women of her mother’s generation were encouraged to enjoy their 5 o’clock cocktails. A martini calmed nerves; a glass of wine helped a woman to sleep. But don’t drink too much, obstetricians cautioned: all those empty calories!
By the mid-1960’s, many obstetricians even believed that alcohol could halt premature labor. As noted by Dr. Golden, now a medical historian at Rutgers University in Camden, N.J., when women arrived at the hospital in premature labor, they were often handed a vodka and orange juice or given alcohol intravenously.
All that began to change with the identification of FAS in 1973. Now the pendulum has swung the other direction.
Q. After six years of researching fetal alcohol syndrome, do you now have a gut instinct about whether it’s O.K. to drink during pregnancy?
A. I’ve read so many different arguments from so many different scientists that I don’t think I should comment.
But in a litigious society, one that is committed to banishing all risk, then you have take a position against all drinking.
In theory, anyone could be a terrorist, so everyone has to go through the line at the airport. Whereas in more practical terms, we might be able to develop a profile and only screen certain passengers, but we won’t do that. So everyone has to get their luggage X-rayed.