Obviously I can't speak about this from firsthand experience, but it does seem odd to me that there is such commotion about things women can and can't do when expecting.

The girls at work talk about it lots during lunch breaks. Working on lots of drink brands at work means we have to cover our asses a lot too (there is a dark day looming when all drinks packaging will be a big B+W health Warning box).

Yet in most of Europe, women eat unpasteurised cheese to help during pregnancy. We do the opposite. Italian women are encouraged to drink red wine every night. We say drink nothing. Guinness used to run add campaigns saying it gives you essential iron and nutrients. Now they spend millions educating midwives on what NOT to recommend.

All seems a bit nuts to me. Talking of which, some scientists think that there is a strong link to what kids can and can't tolerate as they grow older depending on what they got used to in the womb. In the 80s they apparently asked Mums to stop eating nuts for a while, now many of those women have children with allergies.

Surely going out clubbing until 5am on Absinthe is a bad idea if 5 months pregnant but does it really do any harm to have the odd bit of cheese?

Cue someone saying 'My grandma ate fish n chips every day until she was 96 and was fit as a fiddle....'

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NB: If this is too grown up a thread for you folks, feel free to nominate older men and women who'd still get 'it' instead / as well