Can't the BMA just admit it doesn't want pregnant women to have fun?

Earlier this month, a review published by the Cochrane Library criticised the idea of ‘eating for two’ while pregnant, suggesting that doing so would affect foetal development and increase the likelihood of obesity in the child. At the weekend, the British Medical Association said it plans to revise all previous advice given to pregnant women, and will now inform them that the consumption of any alcohol while pregnant will have a negative effect on the child.

Why doesn’t the BMA just come out and say that it doesn’t want pregnant women to have any fun? The continual revision of medical advice to make it fit with our health-obsessed culture is impacting on all our lives, through smoking bans, drinking limits and calorie warnings on eclairs. But no one is monitored as much as pregnant women. Most expecting mothers want to do what is best for their child. Yet from the moment of conception, women embark on an interminable battle with their doctors and midwives, magazines, health books and the state, and must surrender their bodies to the ongoing scrutiny of our wellbeing-obsessed culture.