7.0 QUESTION FOUR:
What are alternative courses of action?
One alternative course of action would be to enforce legislation against pregnant women drinking, however how could this law be enforced? Make every woman take a pregnancy test before she orders a drink? Or maybe not let women order drinks at all? This course of action would be difficult to put into play. Research shows that the danger period for a woman to drink is in the first three months of pregnancy, therefore a woman may choose to drink early on and the person serving the alcohol or the mother herself may not even realise that she is pregnant (Motluk 1999).
Cans and bottles containing alcohol could carry labels warning expectant mothers about the risks of drinking during pregnancy.
Another alternative course is to just do nothing, Australia promotes itself as being a free country, and everyone has their own rights, it is the woman's autonomy to choose to drink, if she can live the with consequences then why should anybody stop her?
However education is the best solution. If a large campaign was launched similar in exposure to the grim reaper campaign, more people would become aware of the problem.
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