The takeaway appears to be that women who like to consume alcohol, and are not using some form of birth control, should pretend that they are pregnant at all times.
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The CDC press release estimated “3.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 years of age are at risk of exposing their developing baby to alcohol if they are sexually active, drinking and not using birth control to prevent pregnancy”.
But this doesn’t mean that having a few drinks in the early weeks of pregnancy – before a woman realizes she’s pregnant – is harmful.
Up to one in 20 U.S. school children may have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), which range from physical to behavioral and last a lifetime. “The recommendation should be if you are engaging in unprotected sex, limit your alcohol use, just in case….” McKnight-Eily is a CDC health scientist and one of the authors of the report.
Avoiding large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy is mere common-sense, but the awkward advice implies that a woman who drinks will automatically forget to use birth control, and that all women should be treated as incubators, whether or not they intend to become pregnant.
“We definitely didn’t make any recommendations for women who are pre-pregnant”, said McKnight-Eily.
On Grounded Parents, writer Steph – a mother of two and stepmother of two more – opined that “While the US government has not yet formalized restrictions on what I can and can’t do as a woman of childbearing age, this culture shift – viewing women as vessels for potential babies – scares me”. As the report points out, half of pregnancies in the US are unplanned, and apparently no difference in alcohol consumption was found between women who were trying to get pregnant and women who weren’t.
“It might not be the best idea to blanketly say that all sexually active women shouldn’t drink because that’s not going to happen”, said Elaine Benke, a University of Minnesota student.
Fetal alcohol syndrome can cause central nervous system disabilities, developmental delays, hyperactivity disorder, and low IQ, along with facial deformities.
“So I came across it from that world where a lot of parents are concerned about educating the public on what they see to be the risks of creating situations like this for future children”.
“I think it is a little extreme”, Julia Lavigne of Chicopee said.
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McKnight-Eily wants to remind people that the CDC is not making a new guideline or new regulation. “Every woman who is pregnant or trying to get pregnant – and her partner – want a healthy baby”.
