Alcohol During Pregnancy Not Harmful?
We always thought it was everything but wise to drink alcohol and coffee during the pregnancy, but the book Expecting Better, written by Emily Oster, invalidates lots of pregnancy rules.
Emily Oster found out lots of studies on the effects of alcohol and caffeine during the pregnancy are flawed. When she got pregnant herself and her doctor told her she had to give up her regular number of cups of coffee, she took a look at all the facts and found out that the research in which is stated that coffee and miscarriages are linked contains some mistakes. She then decided herself to keep on drinking coffee, because there wasn’t enough evidence that would convince her to stop.
The same went for drinking alcohol. A study once wrote that one drink a day can already cause behavioural problems with children. When she took a look at the research she found out that 18% of the women used didn’t drink at all and 45% enjoyed, besides the occasional drink, lots of cocaine… She concluded that women can drink one or two alcohol drinks a week during the first three month of the pregnancy, after that one drink a day won’t hurt.
She has also stated that dyeing your hair won’t hurt, there’s little proof that exercising during your pregnancy has any advantages and gardening can best be avoided, because you can get in touch with a certain parasite that lives in the soil. Sushi won’t hurt, sardines and herring are good for your baby’s IQ, but raw milk cheese is not a good idea. Oster says that she wrote her book just to show women all the facts and let them make up their own minds so they can figure out what they will and won’t do during their pregnancy.
Though Oster thinks it’s okay and she’s done it herself, public authorities still advise against the drinking of alcohol.
What would you do?
