Nice thought but I don't think cause and effect is established here...

Some stress-busting green space

The Bradford Telegraph & Argus reports some 'ground-breaking' research into the link between green spaces and depression in pregnancy:

The key finding revealed that while 33.5 per cent of women reported at least one severe depressive symptom during pregnancy, those living in the greenest areas of Bradford were around 20 per cent less likely to report feeling depressed.

Programme manager, Rosie McEachan, said: "This is a really important finding, as it means we can make changes at an environment level which will have a larger benefit for our communities in most need.

"Efforts should be made to increase the availability of green space at a policy level and utilisation of green space at an individual level."

The problem with this is that the mums living in Bradford's greenest areas are (I guessing here) probably older, richer, healthier and better-educated. Not that these eliminate ante-natal depression of course but I suspect that a young single mum-to-be in inner city Bradford is far more likely to suffer from depression than her counterpart up the valley. Which isn't to say that green spaces aren't important but that those demographics are likely to be much more important.

Still a nice thought.

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Pregnant mums, you've every right to drink in moderation

In an especially nannying article, Emma Barnett, "Women's Editor" of the Daily Telegraph (do they have a "Men's Editor"?) has a go at pregnant women who have the occasional drink:

I am no fan of judgement. I think people are, by and large, a law unto themselves. Last month, however, I was at a dinner party in a painfully cool (both in temperature and temperament) East London warehouse when I noticed a friend’s eight-months-pregnant wife happily knocking back a bottle of beer. “Don’t stare Emma,” hissed my husband. “It’s just the one.” I silently scolded my horrible self. He was right. But then this successful lawyer moved onto the Pinot Grigio. Two great goblets of the stuff. And I found myself in full judgement mode.

Our writer transformed from a gentle, non-judgemental luvvie to a judgemental nanny in one short paragraph. She wheels out some doctor's estimation of the impact of drinking complete with the obligatory scary number:

Last week doctors revealed that up to 7,000 babies a year in Britain are showing signs of developmental damage because their mothers drank during pregnancy. 

In 2012 there were 729,673 live births in the UK so, even at the upper end of Emma's unreferenced estimate, that's less than 1% of total births. Emma then goes on to quote some doctor pal who suggests having a glass of wine is worse than smoking! This doesn't seem to me, however much we should be concerned about those 'up to 7,000' children, that drinking in pregnancy is a major problem.

So what the evidence? The answer is best given as mixed. Some studies show a small negative impact of moderate drinking on birthweight but the most substantial studies really show no significant negative impact of moderate drinking:

The bottom line, according to study co-author John Mcleod, is that "[there's] certainly no evidence that moderate alcohol use by pregnant mums is good for their kids, and [there are] reasons to be cautious about other messages around 'benefits' of moderate alcohol use by pregnant mums. But equally, [there's] no strong evidence for important harmful effects."

So a sort of researcher 'meh' there - probably best not to drink but if you have the odd glass or two during pregnancy it's probably not having any harmful effect on the baby.

More recently a significant study challenges the prior consensus on alcohol affecting birth weight. This is a multi-national study involving 5,628 women who were pregnant for the first time between 2004 and 2011and it concluded that:

Rates of premature birth, babies with low birth weight or small size, and preeclampsia—a potentially life-threatening condition in which a pregnant woman develops high blood pressure—were similar across the alcohol consumption categories

The studies quoted above looked at child development after birth whereas this study only looks at the situation at birth. Again there appear to be few if any negative effects from moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

It seems to me that the proper advice is exactly the advice given to mums now - go easy but if you're out don't feel that you can't have a glass of wine.

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Abortion: why it's not a simple as it seems to some folk....

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I used to think things were simple. You remove barriers to people’s rights and they behave like grown ups. And for most of us this is true, most of the time, under most circumstances. But let’s paint a little picture, tell a story – one that’s only too real for many young women.


A 17 year-old girl gets pregnant. She know who the Dad is but isn’t in a relationship with him any more, she’s going out with a different bloke who isn’t all than keen on his woman carrying some other man’s child – especially when that man is the spotty Darren from Eccles Street.

Now the girl – let’s call her Carol – tells her Mum and her best friend Shazza that she’s going to keep the baby. They’re happy with this, just as they’d have been happy if Carol had chosen to have an abortion. Happy in her choice and supported by friends and family, Carol trogs off to tell her boyfriend – we’ll call him Karl. Who hits the roof. And Carol.

 The police are called. And, because Carol’s pregnant, unmarried and under 18, social services get involved – after all Carol has decided to keep the baby and that is the proper concern of social services.

Social services tell Carol that, because of her circumstances and her boyfriend’s violence, it’s very likely that the baby will be taken into care straight after birth. Understandably Carol’s pretty distraught and confused. She thought she was going to have a lovely baby to care for but instead she’s become just breeder – having a baby for somebody else.

 And Karl’s on the phone, on Facebook. Begging forgiveness saying he’ll not hit her again. So she goes to meet him. And he says again that she should get rid of the baby.

So she goes to the doctor…

I’m making no moral judgments here about abortion merely pointing out how ignorant it is to say abortion is as simple as this:

…if a woman seeks an abortion within the first 24 weeks of her pregnancy, it is surely then a matter for her alone, subject only to medical advice and approval.

That may be a stripped down description of the law. It may be the case for some women – even for many women. But the reality out there is that plenty of ‘unwanted’ pregnancies are simply not that simple. Young women don’t arrive at the decision to terminate on their own (with their doctors) but do so after speaking with mum, with friends and with others involved in their life. This may not fit that simple picture but it is the real world - and we should deal with the real world rather than one stripped of social interaction where decisions are taken in isolation.

Is it really such a bad thing to say that the NHS should make impartial counselling and advice available to young women in such circumstances? Is it such a bad thing that women contemplating termination should receive the information about their options allowing that “informed choice” the law speaks of?

Personally I don’t think so.

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Quote of the day...

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From Mark Wadsworth in response to a comment on his post on smoking and pregnancy:

S, glad to hear that you were one of the lucky 99.6% of smokers who have healthy babies :-)

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