When Dr. Sofia Jawed-Wessel asked 500 people the first word that comes to mind when they think of a pregnant woman, she was alarmed but not surprised when the overwhelming response that came back was the word “cute”.
“When we label an adult as cute, we take away a lot of their intelligence, their complexity,” she explains in her TED Talk, The lies we tell pregnant women. “We reduce them to child-like qualities,” she adds.
It’s one of the many gripes Dr. Jawed-Wessel has with the way in which society thinks, talks and acts around pregnant women. It’s a rhetoric that compels pregnant women to consider themselves public property; as soon as a baby is growing in their stomach, their body is no longer theirs, but merely a “vessel of reproduction”.
After all, how else do we explain strangers patting the pregnant belly without asking? Or offering advice on a birth plan they’re not apart of? Or assuming they know best what a pregnant woman should be putting inside her body?
The first lie that Dr. Jawed-Wessel takes issue with is the one about alcohol.
In her own opinion and from her own research, Dr. Jawed-Wessel claims “this is a huge secret”.
“It is actually safe to drink in moderation during pregnancy. Many of us don’t know this, because doctors don’t trust pregnant women with this secret.
“We don’t trust her to make her own decisions.”
Naturally, too much alcohol has been proven to be dangerous for pregnant women and unborn babies. But Dr. Jawed-Wessel makes the point that alcohol in absolute moderation is not harmful, the issue lies in spreading that information to all women at the risk that some may not be able to moderate their drinking.
This finding is supported by other healthcare professionals, such as Professor John Macleod, from the University of Bristol’s School of Social and Community Medicine. In 2013, Macleod found that drinking three to seven glasses of alcohol a week does not harm the foetus.
Top Comments
What is there to possibly gain by telling people that they really can drink while pregnant? For a start- the "safe" limit is different person to person. Some people also percieve some drinks as safer than others that really have the same alcohol content. "Moderation" is a very loose term. If you can't sacrifice drinking alcohol for 9 months of your life for the potential safety of your child, you possibly have a problem.
Agreed completely sunnybunny. Either this doctor is working for the alcohol industry or she is embarrassingly uninformed. Alcohol is a teratogen which is a substance that causes birth defects. NO amount of alcohol is safe for the unborn child and yes, everyone is different. Who knows whether the issues in our DNA will exacerbate or reduce the severity of effects? It is impossible to predict. Please don't drink while pregnant.
I actually thought the drinking thing was because they don't know what the safe limit actually is?
The sex thing is ridiculous. No-one thinks that. Well, maybe teenagers...?