A man sees his pregnant girlfriend smoking at her sister's 40th birthday party. Having (perhaps) had a few drinks, he gets mad on behalf of his unborn child. An alleged scuffle later and - because the man is Ken Livingstone, mayor of London - the incident is front-page news. Meanwhile, pregnant women everywhere get the message: behave yourself or you will make people angry. Keep that foetus safe or else.
Earlier this year, the model Kate Moss was vilified in the press after being caught at a party with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Less than two years ago, Cherie Blair's half-sister, Lauren Booth, caused a similar stir when she was pictured in the Sunday Express smoking while pregnant. "We are made into social pariahs for having the occasional cigarette," she said defiantly.
Most people know that cigarettes and alcohol are not good for foetuses. Smoking increases the risks of miscarriage, premature birth, having a small baby and cot death. Alcohol in excess (although no one knows what that means in pregnancy) can cause miscarriage, learning difficulties and a syndrome in which babies have small heads and abnormal eyes, noses, mouths and hearts. But does this give us the right to be hostile to those pregnant women who succumb to the odd cigarette or glass of red wine?
"As long as pregnant women have all the information given to them - that they know smoking is bad for their baby - then it is their right to do what they feel comfortable with," says Janice Clark, a mother of two and director of recruitment consultants J & C Associates. "Other people have no right to make comments or interfere with what a pregnant woman is doing. When I've been pregnant, I've always felt my unborn child was not in the public domain."
And yet Livingstone's behaviour suggests precisely the opposite: that women do become public property when pregnant. His sense of entitlement to intervene on his unborn child's behalf seems to be reflected in the censorious way that ciggy-smoking mums-to-be, such as Moss, are portrayed.
"Everything is public property; it's not just pregnant women. People feel they have a right to comment on parents smacking their children in Tesco's," says Thérèse Lawton, a midwife at University College Hospital, London. "It's not helpful for an outsider to interfere. Advice is helpful if it comes from the right people - without being patronising or critical."
If there has been a shift in popular opinion, what does this mean for the one-in-four women in the UK who continue to smoke through pregnancy?
If one takes the example of the US as the shape of things to come, then they should certainly be concerned. South Carolina is leading the way with its Fetal Abuse law. Under this law, a viable foetus has the same protection from parental abuse as a baby. If you are pregnant and taking drugs, it is assumed that you are an unfit parent and your baby will be taken from you. Hospitals give all women drugs tests without their consent and report positive ones to local prosecutors. According to the Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York, 40 women have been indicted since 1992. Almost all, says the centre, are African-American and poor. The Drugs Policy Alliance in Washington says that drug treatment centres report an 80% drop in pregnant women coming for help.
"We're really messed up in the US," says Lynn Paltrow, attorney for the Centre for Constitutional Rights, who has represented some of the pregnant women of South Carolina. "There is so much anger directed at pregnant women. I was talking to some law students in Maryland recently. I asked them why, as happened in a recent case in the US, a pregnant women should be forced to have a Caesarean section against her will. Why, I asked them, should pregnant women have fewer rights to citizenship than other people? One of the male students answered, 'It's just the burden women bear.' That describes the popular view of pregnancy."
Pregnant women are not only imprisoned for drugs: Paltrow says that the state of Wisconsin recently passed a law allowing a pregnant woman to be taken into custody if she misuses alcohol. The law is enforceable from conception onwards. "We're so punitive," says Paltrow. "Foetal protection laws are even being extended to cover women before they get pregnant."
The prevailing moral climate in the US is conditioned by the aggravated debate on abortion and the "right to life". In the UK, however, it is hard to imagine legislation against smoking or drinking during pregnancy getting a hearing. Pregnant women are advised by NHS Direct to drink only occasionally. Its website states that there is no research evidence to suggest what level of alcohol is dangerous. "The odd drink is OK, it can help you relax," says Lawton. "But if a couple are at a party, the onus shouldn't just be on the pregnant woman not to get drunk. Her partner should act responsibly, too. They're both having a baby."
"Just because a woman has a drink doesn't mean she cares less about her pregnancy," says Clark. "It makes me sad when I see a pregnant woman smoking because I can't believe she really wants to do that - to risk the health of her baby. But if we start interfering, then the next step is monitoring who should and shouldn't have children."
