- Economist Emily Oster analysed hundreds of health studies and journals
- She found that many studies were flawed and didn't give the true picture
- Coffee, wine and deli meats such as ham are back on the menu
- The Department of Health recommends limiting alcohol consumption
- Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard was cautiously welcoming
Pregnant women can drink alcohol and coffee and dye their hair – but should avoid gardening, according to an expert who aims to dispel ‘motherhood myths’.
Economist and author Emily Oster contradicts conventional wisdom and advocates a much more relaxed approach to pregnancy.
In her book, Expecting Better, she claims a glass of wine a day is fine, plenty of coffee won’t harm the baby and gaining too little weight while pregnant is far more worrying than gaining too much.
Safe? According to Emily Oster, a glass of wine a day is fine during the second and third trimesters
The Harvard-educated associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago used her data skills to rewrite the rules of pregnancy.
Last night she told the Daily Mail that food restrictions were ‘overblown’ and that alcohol consumption does not affect the IQ or behaviour of the child.
She said her book – which found the best studies often painted a different picture from official guidelines – was ‘simply to show women the evidence and let them decide for themselves’.
Miss Oster said: ‘Actually getting the numbers led me to a more relaxed place: a glass of wine every now and then, plenty of coffee, exercise when I wanted it.’
Controversial: Oster's research contradicts received wisdom on drinking during pregnancy
Miss Oster’s quest began when she became pregnant three years ago and was advised to give up her four cups of coffee a day.
Unwilling to do so and frustrated by ‘one long list of rules’, she investigated and found that research linking coffee consumption to higher rates of miscarriage was flawed.
She wrote in one article: ‘I ultimately decided that the weight of evidence didn’t support limiting my consumption very much. I decided to continue.’
Her next port of call was alcohol. She looked at a study in the journal Pediatrics, which had concluded that just one drink a day was enough to put unborn children at risk of behavioural problems.
But the research did not reflect that 18 per cent of the women studied didn’t drink at all and 45 per cent of those who enjoyed a daily drink also took cocaine.
She concluded that women should feel comfortable with one or two drinks a week during the first three months and up to one a day after that.
Her research found that dyeing hair was fine and there was little evidence that exercise, while not unsafe, had any benefits. But she found gardening could raise the risks of exposure to a toxoplasmosis parasite living in the soil.
Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite and is acquired from contact with cats and their faeces. A woman contracting it just before or while pregnant can transmit it to her baby.
Miss Oster said: ‘There is some risk to increase birth defects if you do a lot of outdoor gardening when you are pregnant. That can increase rates of toxoplasmosis.’
She discovered sushi was fine and sardines and herring were good for a child’s IQ, but advised against raw milk cheese.
Sceptics were less convinced. A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Drinking during pregnancy can be associated with miscarriage, foetal alcohol syndrome and low birth weight.’
‘Our advice remains that women who are trying to conceive or who are pregnant should avoid alcohol.’
Netmums website founder, Siobhan Freegard, said: ‘Official guidelines may seem stringent but they are there to err on the side of absolute safety.’
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong-and What You Really Need to Know, £10.04, is released next week by Orion.
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