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IRELAND HAS THE highest rates of drinking before and during pregnancy in a new study of almost 18,000 women.
A new study published in the British Medical Journal Open shows that Ireland has higher rates of drinking before (90%) and during (82%) pregnancy among ourselves, Australia, the UK and New Zealand.
Added to that, Ireland has the highest rate of binge drinking before (59%) and during (45%) during pregnancy, based on analysis of three studies.
But the exact prevalence could be far lower than that as estimates of drinking during pregnancy from two other studies were substantially lower (20-46%), with only 3% of women reporting binge drinking in one, the researchers are cautioning.
Researchers across the four countries based their findings on an analysis of data from three studies: The Growing up in Ireland (GUI) study; the Screening for Pregnancy Endpoints (SCOPE) study; and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS).
Between 15% and 70% of the women said that they had drunk 1-2 units a week during the first three months (trimester) of their pregnancy. But the number of reported units dropped substantially in all countries between the first and second trimester, as did binge drinking.
The researchers point out that most clinical and government guidelines advise women to stop drinking during pregnancy.
But they write: “Alcohol use during pregnancy is highly prevalent, and evidence from this cross-cohort and cross-country comparison shows that gestational alcohol exposure may occur in over 75% of pregnancies in the UK and Ireland.”
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You’d like to say ..”mmm, X is the best of a bad bunch”…..but looking at this list it’s just a ‘bad bunch’ full stop. Anyone but Pretti Patel though
Not as bad as Vance who “did not have sexual relations with that sofa”!!!! #MadamPresident2024
Their most “centrist” candidate wants to leave the Convention on Human Rights!!! Says it all really, these Radical Right have a disdain for human rights and people have abandoned them in their droves. Labour will be in power for decades.
@9QRixo8H: Had a chuckle when I read that. The most pro-Israeli of a pro-Israeli gang is also their most ‘centrist candidate’.
@9QRixo8H: Indeed. I see that British people still don’t understand that their own politicians signed the Lisbon Treaty only on condition that they could add their own amendment. That UK amendment opted Britain out of the International charter of human rights. They’ve left it to their rulers for way too long and that’s an example of how their rulers got away with dismissing the principles of human rights. I don’t think enough people saw that at the time – tabloids assured them all that their politicians knew exactly what they were doing. Unfortunately, this was true. And British people were deported out of the blue because of that disregard.
Some day they’ve got to do better by their voters.
Would like to see British Patel as leader as she would accelerate the demise of what’s left of the despicable Tory party.
@James Leahy: True James……guess you’d have to counter -balance that with her utter disdain & contempt for Ireland/ anything Irish
@Buster Lawless: was she the one who said we should starve the Irish at one stage.No concept of history and not much between the ears either.
@James Leahy: Don’t overestimate the British voter. The Tories will be back in power soon enough. It’s quite the conservative country.
They deserve all the disarray they can muster up and more,pity auld thatcher isn’t around to see it.
Thoughts with those and their loved ones in Southport. The headline below needs changing. To ‘kill’ means to make someone or something die. ‘Murder’ refers to the crime of deliberately causing someone’s death.
A Dribble of Deplorables
We think our shower are bad!!!
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