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Hello, my name is Christine. I am currently a second semester nursing student and I have an assignement to write a paper about a question that I will ask you all wonderful nurses and summarize the comments. I have been reading the discussions for a while and I find it very interesting and I have learned alot. The question I pose has to do with a neighbor that I knew. She is young, 24 years old, this is her first pregnancy (4 months pregnant)and has a history of cervical cancer. Ever since her diagnosis of cancer, she has been worried about having children, and now that she is pregnant she is paranoid over everything. She is constantly worried and stressed about how this pregnancy will go. Her doctor has prescribed her a glass of wine every night to relax her and decrease her stress level. My neighbor said she talked to the doctor and nurse about the order and no one questioned the order. I have done some research on this, and I came across the article "One drink can last a lifetime" by Dunbar, C., in the Nursing Spectrum 2005 6(6):23-24. The article explicitly states that there is no established safe level of alcohol use for pregnant women and hence should be advised to abstain from all forms of alcohol. I also read in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practicioners,(2005, 17(5): 187-193) an article called "Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders prevention: an exploratory study of women's use of attitudes toward adn knowledge about alcohol" by Walker and Fisher. This article states that there is a spectrum of disorders that can occur when a woman consumes alcohol during pregnancy. It states FAS is the most common, but there can be behavioral problems, cognitive problems and they don't always have to have physical features such as facial deformities to pin point it out. It also states that in all trimesters, the baby can be affected by alchol. My question is do you all know any doctors or midwives who have suggested this?? What do you think about what this doctor and nurse did considering the uncertainty of what alcohol can do? What do you all tell your patients about alcohol use? What would you have done if this was your patient. I would appreciate thoughts and opinions about the subject and opinions and experiences with this. Hope to see some responses,=) Christine

Hello, my name is Christine. I'm currently a nursing student and i have reading all of your postings for a while. I have really enjoyed them. I'm currently on L&D for my clinical rotation. Being on this floor has raised some questions about things I have seen. In particular, my neighbor is 6 months pregnant. She had cervical cancer and is now very stressed about her pregncy, worried something will go wrong. Her doctor prescribed her a glass of wine every night to relax her. What is your guys' experience with this? Have you seen this before? What are your beliefs? Do you all know any doctors who do this? I read in Obstectric &Gynecology Vol. 106, No.5, Part 1, Nov 2005 in the article Recognition and prevention of Fetal Alcohol syndrome by Floyd, O'Connor, Sokol, et al, that there is no established safe level of alcohol use for pregnant women and therefore should be told to abstain from it. How can a doctor in good conscious tell a pregnant women to drink alcohol? I'd appreciate responses, this is an assingment for nursign school. Thanks, Christine