New research funded by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) and undertaken by the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre has found that women receive contradictory information about the risks of drinking alcohol while pregnant. In Conversations about alcohol and pregnancy, a group of Canberra women were interviewed to see how they understood the issue and how they interpret different types of information about it from the media, experts and public health guidelines. 110 media items were analysed and a dominant framework of "contested evidence and advice" was revealed, where stories highlight contradictions evidencing harm or no harm to the foetus from alcohol consumption. This was largely mirrored in the women interviewed.
Some women discussed uncertainty surrounding its potential impacts as their reasoning for abstaining from alcohol, while others thought that the occasional drink was acceptable. Some felt they should be able to decide themselves what they could drink and others felt public health messages were reasonable.
Conversations about alcohol and pregnancy
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Syaf
