Tickets: £5.00 via www.birminghamsalon.org (NB: change from brochure information)

Public health advice to women who plan to become, or who are, pregnant increasingly emphasises the effects of their choices about their lives, or their circumstances, on long term outcomes for the child, with everything from coffee consumption to snacking examined for negative effects. Policy documents suggest that how the mother lives and behaves from conception onwards can affect how her child learns, earns, and becomes part of society and at the same time there is increased emphasis on the need for intervention and support services. By implication, a huge responsibility for the problems of society is now focussed on the pregnant woman. Is it right that she be expected to bear this burden, either alone, or with expert help and advice? Or is it reasonable for society to demand certain responsibilities for the unborn? Are we becoming too focussed on the developing fetus at the expense of the mother’s autonomy?