When Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership asked us to create a campaign – starting in 4 boroughs of Greater Manchester and then, if successful, rolling out to all 10 – to promote the risks of alcohol exposed pregnancies and raise awareness of FASD, we knew we were stepping into unchartered waters.
Conflicting professional advice over the years has led to mixed messages, with many believing it’s safe to drink one or two units of alcohol a week, with no harmful effects to a developing baby. So, it was always going to be a big ask to overcome the entrenched societal perceptions and misconceptions of drinking during pregnancy, without alienating or stigmatising our target audience.
Lack of clear evidence for a ‘safe’ threshold for alcohol consumption during pregnancy, led the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) to advise pregnant women abstain completely from alcohol by 2016. However, according to research carried out by the Institute of Alcohol Studies - www.ias.org.uk/reportPDF - the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines contained different...
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