Pregnant Pause Campaign for Aussie Dads

The campaign slogan is “Man up, drinks down”

Launched last week, the Pregnant Pause campaign is challenging ‘dads-to-be’ and all Australians to support someone they care about through their pregnancy by taking a break from alcohol.

By pledging to take a break for a month, three months or the entire pregnancy, Pregnant Pausers are raising money for those affected by FASD.

On the campaign website, the importance of supporting women in having a healthy pregnancy is discussed:

“Most likely, she’s planning on giving up drinking for the duration of the pregnancy to ensure she has the healthiest baby possible. Sometimes, peer pressure adds up – half a glass of red and a bath after a hard day at work, champagne at a birthday party, it’s hard to get away from.

It’s at those times, even when we’re talking half a glass, you can help out.

Like getting fit, changing your diet or moving house, life is so much easier when you have support.

You can help your baby and your loved one by going off the grog together.”

The campaign is making use of social media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and has soon‐to‐be parents, Olympic swimmer, Elka Graham, and her husband, Olympic water polo champion, Tom Whalan as ambassadors.

The goal of the campaign is to have 500 Australians ‘take a pause.’ See the press release here.

The campaign is sponsored by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), an independent charitable organisation working to prevent the harmful use of alcohol in Australia. FARE is one of the organizers for the first Australasian Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Conference  scheduled to take place on November 19-20, 2013 in Brisbane.

For more on this topic, see earlier posts:

• FASD Prevention in Australia’s Ord Valley (October 13, 2011)
• Getting Fathers Involved (January 4, 2011)