Lees147

Don't know if anybody saw it on the telly the other night but they took a group of around 10 pregnant women in the room and asked them if they knew the affects alcohol has on your baby whilst preggers.

The response was a whooping all ten of them were under-informed and drinking.

This was in the UK by the way.

Some of them were drinking almost 5 glasses of wine on a night out!!!

This is more than the weekly minimum for someone who is pregnant. (4 units)

When i went to Canada in two weeks i found out all about FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome).

This was advertised on the telly during pretty much every advert.

Deer Hunter

The gov't doesn't spend money on public advertising for no reason

sinope

When universities are putting on remedial reading and writing classes for undergrads in the UK, how can the govt possibly educate teenagers on the dangers of smoking & drinking whilst pregnant?

Canada2006

When we went to the hospital when my OH was pregnant first thing they said was: zero tolerance to alcohol. OH has been dry ever since as she's still breastfeeding.

I know some very intelligent and well educated people over here who drank and smoked during pregnancy, abeit a bit less. It's apparently very hard to give up completely!

Canada2006

I wouldn't confuse the two issues here.

Public education can be done effectively via TV, magazines, educating health professionals. There are lots of good channels. Interestingly, in the US a lot of this is done by NGOs and not the government. There, breastfeeding is advocated for 18months to 2 years rather than the 5 minutes over here in Belgium.

As far as remedial courses in reading and writing for university students, this is more a failure in the secondary and primary schooling systems. I think the New Labour government has actually acted to improve this already. In my opinion, in the UK a lot of work has to be done and it will take a long time to change.

Lees147

It is something i don't understand i would give it up completely if i was pregnant but considoring i am a bloke that is a bit hard

Although the government do give these books out that allegedly mentions the effects but people do not read these and throw them away.

Canada2006

You can't stop pregnant women being totally irresponsible. With all advertising and all messages you have to hit through several channels and many times. These girls do know the impact, it's hard not to, but then kid themselves it's not a big problem. They choose to ignore it.

Hit with the message several times, it's harder to ignore - look at the success in the UK of drink driving campaigns.

Well OH was pregnant I offered to give up drinking with her to support her. Thankfully, she said no.

NewWorldMan

Is this some strange usage of the word "intelligent" that I wasn't previously aware of ??

Canada2006

NWM - we sometimes wonder that ourselves.

You're a teacher aren't you? What's your take on all of this? Should schools be educating teenagers away from pregnancy? Can they? Can your students read and write? What do they do in Canada?

Interesting to have some more views.

NewWorldMan

To get back to the original point of the thread ..................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...de/5404008.stm

Even when giving 'anonymous' evidence, the court papers will list your gender, age and the street you live on!!

The case has now collapsed!!

dbd33

There is, in fact, an argument that stopping smoking overnight causes such a disruption to the body that it's best not done while pregnant. I certainly found that switching from a pack of Marlboro a day to no smoking caused physical symptoms likely to be deleterious to a baby. If the pregnancy is unplanned cutting down on smoking once it's discovered might be the best course.

NewWorldMan

I'd love to reply but ...... gotta go teach.

dbd33

This is rather a misleading post. This case doesn't seem to have anything to do with the one being discussed.

dbd33

There are very many public service announcements on Ontario television and very many rules and regulations intended to make people do the right thing. I think Ontario would be very much a nanny state if the public were law abiding. Fortunately, people are not, there's a huge gulf between the legislators and the public at large and many of the laws churned out by the many levels of government are cheerily ignored. I expect the public service announcements are the same; certainly I see people drinking and driving, bicycling without helmets, prostituting themselves, using drugs and smoking in prohibited locations every day despite relentless wittering against these habits on the television.

Canada2006

Teach away, we'll be here later!