Pregnant women keep on drinking
smh.com.au
By Julie Robotham, Medical Writer
February 24 2003

"More than half of Australian women drink alcohol while they are pregnant or breastfeeding, and a quarter smoke, according to the first national survey on drug use during pregnancy. While almost all of those who drank said they reduced their consumption compared with their non-pregnant intake, Australian women were still more than three times as likely as those in the United States to drink at all while pregnant. Just over a third of the 83 per cent of women who usually drank alcohol gave it up completely, leaving 53 per cent taking at least an occasional drink - compared with 15 per cent in the US." [This article doesn't break down the number of mothers who drank while pregnant vs breastfeeding - unfortunate. If we are going to ask mothers to nurse their babies for a minimum of 2 years, we're asking them to give up drinking for almost 3 years, which is a long time for a social drinker who doesn't have an alcohol problem. Is this based on evidence? - JC]