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Imagine the scene: You’ve been trying to conceive, but you’ve muddled the dates in your mind. Now you’re out on a date with your partner, but there’s a chance you could be pregnant, and you don’t want to drink unless you know you’re not pregnant. Well, a bar in Minnesota, US, has installed a pregnancy test dispenser in the restroom so that women can find out within three minutes whether or not they are pregnant, according to Time.
No, thanks, I'm drinking for two
It’s not just for women who are trying to conceive: The installation of the machine is the brainchild of an expert in foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and it reinforces the evidence that drinking heavily, if at all, during pregnancy is a bad idea.
It’s designed to remind the female patron that if there’s a possibility she could be carrying a baby she should reconsider that second drink. In the same way that condom dispensers are designed to ensure safe sex, the machine may even put women off engaging in risky sexual behaviour.
Yet another great feature of having a pregnancy test in a bar restroom is that women find it less embarrassing to buy one than, say, visiting the local pharmacy where the pharmacist may know them personally
All of the profits from the machine are to go to a non-profit charity, Healthy Brains for Children, which exists to highlight the effects alcohol has on prenatal development.
It seems like a positive innovation, but it also raises some questions. Will women who purchase the tests still drink? What about the window period during which a woman may be pregnant, but there aren’t significant proportions of hormones to register on the test? Will the mere presence of the dispenser, much like condom machines, be enough to discourage risk-taking sexual activity, especially when drinking alcohol tends to play an active role in encouraging it?
Do you think a pregnancy test dispenser in a bar will help prevent Foetal Alcohol Syndrome?
Imagine the scene: You’ve been trying to conceive, but you’ve muddled the dates in your mind. Now you’re out on a date with your partner, but there’s a chance you could be pregnant, and you don’t want to drink unless you know you’re not pregnant. Well, a bar in Minnesota, US, has installed a pregnancy test dispenser in the restroom so that women can find out within three minutes whether or not they are pregnant, according to Time.
No, thanks, I'm drinking for two
It’s not just for women who are trying to conceive: The installation of the machine is the brainchild of an expert in foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and it reinforces the evidence that drinking heavily, if at all, during pregnancy is a bad idea.
It’s designed to remind the female patron that if there’s a possibility she could be carrying a baby she should reconsider that second drink. In the same way that condom dispensers are designed to ensure safe sex, the machine may even put women off engaging in risky sexual behaviour.
Yet another great feature of having a pregnancy test in a bar restroom is that women find it less embarrassing to buy one than, say, visiting the local pharmacy where the pharmacist may know them personally
All of the profits from the machine are to go to a non-profit charity, Healthy Brains for Children, which exists to highlight the effects alcohol has on prenatal development.
It seems like a positive innovation, but it also raises some questions. Will women who purchase the tests still drink? What about the window period during which a woman may be pregnant, but there aren’t significant proportions of hormones to register on the test? Will the mere presence of the dispenser, much like condom machines, be enough to discourage risk-taking sexual activity, especially when drinking alcohol tends to play an active role in encouraging it?
Do you think a pregnancy test dispenser in a bar will help prevent Foetal Alcohol Syndrome?
