From self- to other- surveillance: a critical commentary on the English policy framework for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

England now has a policy framework for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This proposes a suite of health care interventions, some of which attend to assessment and support for those who may be diagnosed with the disorder. Others, which are the focus of this commentary, have a stated goal of FASD prevention, to be achieved through embedding activities around alcohol abstention within maternity services and reproductive healthcare. Critical engagement with alcohol abstinence advocacy to pregnant women in this journal has linked this aspect of health promotion to larger debates about risk, moral panic, neoliberalism, self-surveillance and forms of citizenship. The new English policies on FASD have, however, been the subject of relatively little academic engagement so far. In this commentary, after an initial summary of points from the relevant literature in Critical Public Health, we take public debate about the new English policy as our point of departure, highlighting the precautionary approach, the emphasis on monitoring, and contraceptive advocacy for at-risk women. We suggest an important shift in English policy, from presenting women as managers of risk via self-surveillance, to positioning them as in need of routine management and ‘other-surveillance’ within healthcare systems. This raises more general questions about the meaning of ‘autonomy’ and ‘support’ in healthcare.