Critique of how the idea of something for you versus for your child

The ideas highlight the complexity behind women’s alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Women are clearly critical of the clinical messages and a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The way in which women are presented with the recommendations also reveals that health professionals even find it hard to apply indiscriminately these messages in their communication with women.

Ruddick (2007a, ; 2007b) has spoken about the emergence of a foetal/maternal conflict between mother and child. The choice of both Skyla and Paige and other women in this study highlighted an important choice in behaviour between doing something for yourself versus the impact it has upon the health and wellbeing of your child (for a further discussion of this foetal/maternal conflict see Chapter 2). As Bell et al. (2011) argue the new public health has shaped an increasing concern over individual responsibility and self control. In this particular study the women did not desire to be portrayed as uncaring women for consuming alcohol during pregnancy, constructing themselves as being responsible and ‘good’ mothers. This was evident in their constructions of lay discourses around consuming alcohol during pregnancy. As Catriona emphasised, a pro-active choice to avoid it had to be made:

I don’t think I drunk at all I remember, I think making an effort not to drink when I was pregnant

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It is important to consider how this develops the idea of the maternal-foetal relationship (Oaks, 2001, Casper, 1994) with a dichotomy between things for you versus things for your child (Lupton, 1999b). This is influenced by the ‘good’ mother ideology (Knaak, 2010, Lister, 1994, Letherby, 1999, Miller, 2005, Rich, 1997, Rothman, 1993 , Shelton and Johnson, 2006). The lexical choice by Leah demonstrate the importance of lay health perceptions, as she demonstrated her certainty that she would not harm her unborn child, she using phrases such as: “I was sure” “I knew”, "it wouldn’t” to demonstrates her own very individualised notions of risk/choice. Her own lay knowledge and understanding meant that she is clearly very certain that a very low level of alcohol consumption is not a risk to the health of her child. By reiterating this and explaining:

I know it wasn’t going to have any particular damage to my children Leah, 39, Inverness Leah actually demonstrates awareness that the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is potentially associated with negative harm and this is infused through the use of the word “damage”. The use of the word particular is interesting here, there’s a slight hint that it may be risky, but is very unlikely to cause harm. Although there is a risk that consuming alcohol during pregnancy could be detrimental and damaging to the health of the child, she others herself to this notion, and explains that her own alcohol consumption, because it was restricted and a low level of consumption, was not harmful. This is indicative of how some women do not believe that drinking alcohol at late stages is risky / unproblematic. For her it was a one off, Leah was keen to put pressure on this as an occasional behaviour that caused no risk as she does not want to risk being labelled a ‘bad’ mother. She wants it to be okay to receive some pleasure out of something which she thought was of no risk. Discourses around alcohol highlighted women’s restraint over their alcohol consumption, and the ways in which they carefully limited their consumption. Subtle phrases women used such as “kept it to”, touch upon this and demonstrate how a controlled form of drinking was maintained, therefore adhering to the behaviour of a responsible, ‘good’ mother.

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You have to be much more responsible now that there’s a little one as well

Neala, 30, Edinburgh Neala also asserted that she “definitely said no”, emphasising both the definitely, and no. I would argue that she is trying to prevent herself from being judged as a ‘bad’ mother for drinking during pregnancy. These findings correlate with those of Rolfe et al. (2009) who argued that women employ a discourse of self control to resist stigmatising subject positions, protecting their moral status and presenting themselves as ‘good’ women. Adhering to gendered ways of drinking therefore acts to preserve femininity and to allow presentation in a good light, ‘protecting their own moral identities through positioning themselves as womanly and respectable’ (Rolfe et al., 2009, p.331). Women presented themselves as ‘good’ mothers by highlighting responsibility and restraint and that as women they were careful during their pregnancies and vigilant in their health behaviour. As Leah purported:

I was being cautious in my pregnancy in terms of no alcohol consumption, and healthy food and everything like that

Leah, 39, Inverness The choice of behaviour for yourself versus the health of your child was also evident for Mya. She reveals how even her alcohol consumption after pregnancy was directly linked around her notions of being a ‘good’ mother and putting the health of her child before her own. She revealed this made her a mother who was quite paranoid around alcohol:

Drinking, I never touched a drop at all when I was pregnant...I mean after he was born I don’t think I touched a drop of alcohol until he was about four months, because, I was so paranoid that if I had a drink then the fumes off my breath would (laughs) would affect him so I was a completely paranoid mother

Mya, 21, Edinburgh The foetal maternal discourse was also true for other health behaviours. It became evident that women had to negotiate their behaviours around the notions of ‘good’

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mothering, even if these ideas were influenced by their lay knowledge. Olivia recalled that she quit smoking after she had found out that she was pregnant, however she reveals that if it wasn’t for the fact she was pregnant she probably would not have quit.

But I think I stopped smoking about a week after I found out, every time that I had a cigarette I felt horrendously guilty and actually when I stopped it didn’t bother me. I don’t think I would have stopped if I hadn’t been pregnant, but when it was for someone else

Olivia, 32, Edinburgh Women therefore pulled on the notions of responsibility that they now had as mothers. Choices around health behaviours were no longer made entirely for themselves but also had to include a consideration of the effects that they may have on their unborn child.

4.4.3. The difference between how women approach other health messages in