When I first found out I was pregnant I expected to be able to have appointments with people who would be able to give me all the information that I needed, in terms of being pregnant and particularly when it came to alcohol I just expected to be educated on it. And when I didn't get the education I thought I ah went elsewhere and went to books.
Yeah and it wasn't until 20 weeks when we actually got spoken to about alcohol and it was a checklist of are you drinking alcohol — no, check.
I think there definitely a lot of confusion about alcohol consumption, you get conflicting reports all the time, you know, the TV will tell you one thing, books will tell you another, websites will tell you another thing.
And I guess you know you trust your midwives and you trust the people who you see all the time and have the most amount of contact with when you're pregnant. So to be able to get the most amount of information is vital but we don't get it, we just don't get it.
Women want to about alcohol and pregnancy and I think it up to the health professionals that they're dealing with during their pregnancy to inform them about it.
End of transcript
In this video, Verity shares her views about health professionals speaking to pregnant women about alcohol. Verity is expecting her first child. She talks about how she:
- didn’t get much information about the risks of alcohol by health professionals
- came across conflicting advice in books and websites and on the TV
- expects health professionals she trusts, such as midwives, to give her advice