Pregnancy and Wine: The advice is as clear as a glass of cabernet

No sushi. No side sleeping. No soft cheese. Not a single drop of wine. 'No No No'. Pregnant women hear this all the time. But the evidence to actually back up these prohibitions is far less clear than you'd think for how stringently they're doled out. Particularly the wine rule.

Since 1981 the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Pregnancy Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics all note that no amount of wine during pregnancy is deemed safe. But this hasn't always been the norm and isn't standard in practice.

The UK only changed their recommendations from allowing 1-2 drinks per week to no alcohol at all in 2007. Italy just amended their recommendations a couple of years ago. And not all OBGYNs even in the U.S. agree that women need to refrain from all drinking. Why?

The total ban stemmed from conclusive evidence that fetal alcohol syndrome occurs when the pregnant mother drinks moderate to heavy amounts of alcohol. But what is 'moderate to heavy'? About 10 drinks per week. Yet there's a huge difference between 1 and 10. Hence the confusion.

Newer studies have sought to understand this in a more nuanced way though. A Danish study found no difference in outcomes for drinking 1-4 glasses of alcohol per week and total abstinence. A study of women in Ireland, England, New Zealand, and Australia reached a similar finding.

On one hand, women can totally eliminate the risk by not drinking at all. And the stigma helps shame those who may drink if it were up to them into not drinking at all. So why not? That's the argument of those like Dr. David Larry. Scarring women is good.

That's not how Dr. Robyn Horsager-Boehrer and other advocates in healthcare see it. They say women should be given more autonomy and this over policing only leads to women lying to their doctors from stigma. Women are being infantilized.

And it's not just healthcare pros. Writer Emily Oster for example calls for less stigma around small amounts of drinking while pregnant in her bookExpecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong–and What You Really Need to Know. As have other publications.

But regulations haven't changed with the data. Why? Most agree it's just easier to issue a bright line rule that no alcohol should be consumed. But misleading or under-informing patients can lead to a general distrust of healthcare officials. Honesty is the best policy.