From the mouths of celebrities
Helena Bonham Carter on unwanted pregnancy advice:
“People – particularly men – saying with surprise, ‘You’re still drinking caffeine?’ as if I’m performing a criminal act on my unborn as I tuck into my treasured one-a-day cup of tea or coffee. Yeah. “You try nine months of gestation and self-abnegation before you start censoring my diet.”
She told a US magazine: “Your mother was probably on vodka, and do you have three heads?”
“Three heads, I wish! All the better to check you out with!” said the wolf to Little Pink & Grey Riding Hood.
Seriously, I’m with her. Babies and soon to be born are obviously a bit more hardy than the medical community would have us believe, or else our species would not have made it this far.
my mother smoked, drank between 5 and 6 cups of tea a day, and the occasional drink during the entire pregnancies of all 6 of her children. the lowest birth rate, 7 pounds, the highest 9.12… all of us are as fine as it is possible to be in today’s world. which reminded me of when my sister was in labour and a nurse practioner refused to give her an anaesthetic, telling me, “it makes for ‘sleepy’ babies.” i told the nurse, who was my age, “your mother and mine had something and you turned out all right, and i turned out all right!”
as for the rest of you — shut up!