I am an empty walking womb!

[trouble]

All women of childbearing age, and not just pregnant women, should be screened about how much alcohol they drink, new Canadian guidelines recommend.

Women's health experts from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, known as the SOGC, developed the guidelines based on a review of scientific evidence regarding possible harm to a fetus.

The guidelines, released on Thursday, aim to make alcohol screening and support for women at risk a routine part of medical visits to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorder or FASD.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/08/12/alcohol-use-pregnancy.html#ixzz0wQQL89cr

Yes, that's right, gentle readers. All cis women in Canada should be "screened about how much alcohol they drink" to prevent FASD. Aren't getting pregnant? Aren't in a sexual relationship? Aren't in a sexual relationship with a person who could cause a pregnancy? Aren't whatever? No matter! You are a womb! An incubator! A carrier of generations yet unborn! YAY!

I'm so going to have a drink tonight, in celebration of my incubator-status. You are welcome to join me.

{yes yes whatever this is irritating me all out of proportion i'm too sensitive wah wah - take it to your own space. this is my drinking to my unused uterus thread. People who do not drink for whatever reason are welcome to raise a glass of non-alcoholic beverage of their choice as well, should they wish to do so.}

Comments

[meloukhia]

*raises a bottle of ginger beer and hiccups*

I'm sorry to see that the 'pre-pregnant' approach to cis women's health has seeped over the border.

[staranise]

I keep waiting for the "pre-pregnant" defense to get me out of litterbox duty.

[dancesontrains]

I shall join you with some coffee >:(

[gamerchick]

I'll be raising a Grain Belt Nordeast alongside you tonight. I'm so sick of this nonsense.

[laceblade]

If I lived in Canada, I would totally get shitfaced tonight in defiance.

WHAT THE HELL.

[bossymarmalade]

WAT THA FUCK

I don't have work tomorrow; I am going to fill my (happily) unused and forever shuttered womb with so much alcohol fumage tonight that stars in the sky who are hoping to be my baby will fall to the earth in a sotted stupor.

[elliemurasaki]

Hey do you two mind if I metaquotes you?

[dpfesh]

I shall join you by smoking a couple joints. Me and my never-to-be-inhabited womb, along with my 'got his balls snipped' husband.

Not every woman's dream is to breed. Geh. ~shudder~

[sorchar]

And some of us have decided that one is enough, even though we're *gasp* fertile. People are so concerned about the hypothetical babies that they're forgetting about the real live women. *headdesk*

[shiyiya.wordpress.com]

I raise a glass of gatorade in wtf solidarity.

[revena]

*facepalm*

As someone who is in fact planning to have a baby some day, I will hoist a glass with you this evening.

[spiralsheep]

I've already had champagne today... which is possibly an indication of why British doctors have been obsessing for years about how much alcohol all their patients drink (yes, the men too, it's a standard question), heh.

/"52% of our days are overcast, so as a nation we're infused with a wistful melancholy, but we remain a relentlessly chipper population prone to mild eccentricity, binge drinking and casual violence." - Bill Bailey

[owlectomy]

I have already had my drink for the month, so I will raise a mocktail to your righteous outrage! Just when I thought the campaign to make pregnant women's health and alcohol consumption everybody's business couldn't get any worse...

[ilyena_sylph]

*makes self whiskey sour*

I am never having kids.

[whump]

You know, I'd love to be able to blame this on your country's PM, as Harper and his gang are always in need of blame, but I'm pretty sure that this rot crosses party boundaries.

[staranise]

And of course, we shouldn't screen these women because they might have alcoholism! Gosh, no. We only care about the kids with FASD, not about the mothers' mental and physical health.

As someone who works with a lot of teens with FASD, and young mothers with drinking problems... I am staring at this initiative going, "This is the best you can do?" Because what, if I get a hysterectomy, they won't care if I pickle my liver and ruin my life with alcohol?

I don't like spattering so much angry here, especially since it's your journal and... that's enough from me.

*raises her teacup*

[axelrod]

As someone who works with a lot of teens with FASD, and young mothers with drinking problems

Hey there, out of genuine curiosity: since FASD and alcoholism among young women with children are, of course, problems, what *would* effectively address those issues and their actual causes? And my impression is that FASD happens when the pregnant woman drinks to excess i.e. a fuckton of drinks at once, rather than a drink or two more days than not.

Because what, if I get a hysterectomy, they won't care if I pickle my liver and ruin my life with alcohol?

Really fucking good point.

[ironed_orchid]

Drinking coffee right now, but will raise an imaginary bottle of vodka in salutation.

Will probably drink something tonight.

[starlady]

Fuck that shit. I just poured myself a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and I will drink it in angry solidarity.

[terajk]

Damn. I already had my Vanilla Coke for the day. (And that had aspartame in it. Bah!)

I raise a thermos of water to you. Cheers!

no drinking icon, so close enough

[maevele]

cheers. I gotta wait til after dinner, but I'll raise a glass in solid fuckyouitude. preprgnant my ass.

[jesse_the_k]

I'm raising the teapot and the tea glass northeastward.

Fucking bossy nosy parkers!

[sqbr]

If I could drink alcohol, I would do so right now in solidarity. *drinks water and pretends it's vodka*

[19_crows]

What a great use of financial resources!

[amandaw]

Given that most medications are just as dangerous - many MORE so - than alcohol is for fetuses, I wonder if they will outlaw cis women from taking any.

You have cancer and need chemo? OH WELL YOU MIGHT MAYBE SORTA GET PREGNANT ONE POSSIBLE DAY IN THE FUTURE SOMEWHERE, SORRY

[astraldream]

Is this the place to bring up that awful no-coffee while pregnant "rule"? Because I think that's shit too (and I don't drink coffee).

Yeah, if I kept alcohol in the house, I'd be drinking right now.

You know, this kind of creepy attitude is part of the reason I don't have no desire to get a family doctor (even if I *could* get a female, which I CAN'T IN THIS CITY).

[emee]

Funny that, I've already had an alcoholic drink before I even read your entry. I guess I'm psychic.

I also foresee that sex is required to make a baby (what with my extensive knowledge of the field of biology) so I think I'm okay.

Obviously this is why we can never truly be together Anna. There might be a baby and we both drink too much for this to work out well for anyone involved.

[plazmah]

Well, fuck. I was thinking of driving to the grocery store to get veggies. Instead, I will do shots of Soho whilst stewing in my Canadian rage. *raises glass*

[lilacsigil]

amandaw says exactly what I was thinking.

Also, I look forward to the initiative making sure that both men and women have safe working places, free of toxins. Oh, and make sure to sterilise men over 50, who have a higher chance of making ICKLE BABIES with mental health issues.

[amandaw]

I wonder why I never hear about men over 50 fathering children but constantly hear about women over 30 conceiving children and what a threat it is to society.

WHY COULD THIS BE?

[ginny_t]

Wheeee! I am not raising a glass right now, but next time I do, I'll say a good ol' "screw you" to this foolishness.