Daily BrewLCBO's 'Baby Bump' campaign draws criticism
September 9 was International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day.
To raise awareness of the risks associated with drinking during pregnancy, the LCBO launched the Baby Bump Campaign “to promote alcohol-free pregnancy.”
The campaign, which featured the image of a naked pregnant woman holding a sign with the word “love” over her baby bump, didn’t go without criticism.
Toronto resident Laura Jamer, a mother of two, called the campaign “offensive and wrong on so many levels” and submitted a complaint.
“I thought the message behind it was very condescending and that it implied if you have a glass of wine, it meant you didn’t love your body, and it meant you didn’t love your baby, which is really what I take issue with,” she told Global News. “It’s the way that this is put forward.”
Jamer pointed to research that suggested small amounts of alcohol — about two units a week — doesn’t put the unborn at risk, and felt that a strict “no alcohol” campaign shamed educated women who were already making careful decisions about drinking.
“There’s no research to show that light drinking is bad, yet there’s research to show that it’s good, and still there’s this campaign out there to make mothers feel guilty,” she said.
“Not only that, it encourages the general public to shame and judge mothers who are having a glass of wine, like that Toronto waiter recently who refused to serve someone who was pregnant. That made me so angry…to blame and guilt women who just want to enjoy a glass of wine and who have done their research and know there’s no ill effect to doing that.”
Jamer added that those prone to heavy drinking weren’t the targets of the campaign:
“Those people have bigger issues going on in their lives where a light guilt-ridden campaign is not going to make a difference to their drinking.”
The LCBO responded to Jamer’s complaint, explaining that the campaign “is not intended to cause anxiety or worry among customers…nor is it our intent to cause any feeling of discomfort or judgement among female customers who may be shopping while pregnant.”
When it comes to drinking during pregnancy, experts can’t agree — mostly because it’s difficult to back “light drinking” by science.
Dr. Gideon Koren, of Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, wrote in a study that most physicians believe that mild, occasional drinking is safe, even without solid evidence to back it up.
“A safe threshold for maternal alcohol intake has not yet been established, and virtually all medical societies and expert groups addressing this issue strongly recommend abstaining from alcohol during pregnancy. It is, therefore, surprising that Canadian women and many family physicians still believe that women can continue to drink during pregnancy,” Koren wrote.
Economist Emily Oster looked at numerous studies when writing her book “Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong —and What You Really Need to Know" and found that research didn’t necessarily support teetotalling.
“The evidence overwhelmingly shows that light drinking is fine,” she wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “Of course, this is sensitive to timing. Both the data and the science suggest that the speed of drinking, and whether you are eating at the same time, matters. It isn’t that complicated: Drink like a European adult, not like a fraternity brother.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada, like the LCBO, errs on the side of caution:
“There is no safe amount or safe time to drink alcohol during pregnancy or when planning to be pregnant.”
Jamer wasn’t expecting the LCBO to endorse drinking during pregnancy, but said she would have preferred a change in the poster’s wording:
“I think what they had in place before was sufficient — which they still have in place — those little pictures of a woman touching her belly, saying: Drinking while pregnant ’may’ harm your baby. And the operative word there being ‘may.’”
The campaign ended on September 12.
