Cocaine is harmful put probably the least harmful drug of the four mentioned above; but because people addicted to cocaine have lower incomes and tend not to eat the impact of cocaine on fetal development is great (through malnutrion). Anyway, the point is that there are tons of confounding factors when evaluating risks of behaviors for pregnant women and most obstetricians find it easiest for their practice to tell their patients what they want to hear (and in the US people WANT to be told not to drink because that sacrifice is seen as conditioning the mother for parenting). In other places emphasis would necessarily be on different things independent of research.
Jim
"The nursingwoman . . . said that the woman was in throes three full days and that it would be a hard birth unneth to bear but that now in a little it would be. . . . The man harkened to her workds for he felt with wonder women's woe in the travail that they have of motherhood."
-James Joyce, *Ulysses*
Quoting Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com>:
> Doug asked
>
> "What's the standard advice on drinking during
> pregnancy outside the
> U.S.? Here, the standard is not a drop for all nine
> months. I'm
> guessing it's not so strict elsewhere. Anyone know?"
> -
>
> I see pregnant women drinking and smoking in Russia
> with some frequency, but it is not exactly officially approved.