A Pregnant Pause?

An interesting debate is brewing with news that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is considering whether the pregnant mother's alcohol consumption should be put on a child's medical records (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/sep/16/plans-to-record-pregnant-womens-alcohol-consumption-in-england-criticised). The reason why they are thinking about this addition, is that heavy drinking in pregnancy can result in Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) where the baby has a reduced birth weight and a variety of physical and intellectual impairments. I've said it before (but I will say it again), it is very difficult to get an accurate (especially self-report) measure of alcohol consumption, particularily true when there is a social stigma associated with the activity. Would they accept reports from other people? They could also be inaccurate or even malign. Most of the expressed concern has been about the mother's right to privacy but there are also potential problems for her offspring. It might help doctors to understand the genesis of a particular condition in their patient but that same patient may be labelled 'as damaged by a lack of maternal consideration', on the basis of very flimsy evidence. What happens if the child is adopted? FASD is a serious issue but I'm not certain that the systematic recording of this 'information' is really going to be helpful. FASD is usually identified by finding its features in the baby, rather than having the mother's drinking record before looking for it.