Avoid alcohol, Government to tell pregnant women

The Government's health experts are to tell pregnant women to avoid alcohol. The advice, which is planned for the new year, is aimed at clearing up confusion caused by the Government's key independent health advisory body, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), which suggested one or two glasses of wine a couple of times a week was safe.

Other health experts challenged this, and the chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, appeared to contradict it, making it clear pregnant women and those trying to conceive should avoid alcohol. Obstetricians said that Nice had caused a "complete mess".

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Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health minister, told her officials that she wants the confusion to end when fresh guidance to pregnant women is brought out next March by Nice to follow the US advice to "just say no".

Kevin Barron, Labour chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, asked Ms Primarolo: "Who is right?" She replied: "They are both right." She said that the CMO advised pregnant women and those trying to conceive not to drink, but if they chose to, they should minimise the risk by drinking no more than one or two units twice a week, and the Nice guidance was to drink only a little.

The British Medical Journal reported an obstetrician as saying that women should decide whether to drink small amounts.

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