There was more than “a suggestion” that Guinness was good for new mums in the late 60s (Letters, 21 August). In 1976, when my son was born in University College hospital in London, all new mums were offered a daily small glass of Guinness. I told a nurse I couldn’t drink it as I hated the taste, and she said: “Ask your husband to bring in a bottle of sherry – that’ll build you up.” And there began a lifelong devotion to the healing properties of a pre-dinner manzanilla. Or two.
Lillian Adams
Hereford
• When my dad was dying from cancer in hospital in 1990, he kept asking the nurses for a Guinness, who kept refusing. A doctor intervened and wrote on the notes on the end of his bed: “This man is dying. If he asks for a Guinness, for heaven’s sake give him one.” Sure enough, on the bedside table was a can of Guinness with a prescription label on it stating: “Administer orally, as and when requested by patient.”
Pete Lavender
Woodthorpe, Nottingham
• My mum, pregnant then with my brother, run-down and anxious, was prescribed Guinness to “boost her iron”. We are for ever thankful that she didn’t take the thalidomide prescribed with it, because, she said, taken on top of the Guinness it made her feel queasy.
Cat Bracey
Bristol
• My doctor, in 1980, recommended a pint of Guinness a day throughout my first pregnancy. My thrifty Scots husband brewed stout for me, and I had a half pint at lunchtime and a half with my evening meal.
Ros Napier
Birmingham
• I was given a bottle of Guinness every evening for the 10 days I was in hospital with No 1 baby in 1973. Perhaps the alcohol in my milk was the reason for this baby sleeping so well. She is now a non-drinker.
Sally Smith
Redruth, Cornwall
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