Every year, about 40,000 babies are born with symptoms of prenatal alcohol exposure (Lupton, 2003). This number will only continue to grow if the risk of drinking alcohol while pregnant is not brought to the people’s attention. When the mother takes a drink of alcohol, so does the fetus, which will cause physical and behavioral problems after birth. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is completely preventable and irreversible. FAS awareness and prevention is important; expectant mothers need to know the background information about the syndrome, some common symptoms, signs, and treatments, and the mental and physical abnormalities that will occur because of this lifelong syndrome.
The term, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, was first described in 1973 after recognition of a specific patter of craniofacial, limb, and cardiac defects in unrelated infants born to alcoholic mothers. Since the term was developed, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has slowly become recognized as a public health issue. The first medical criterion for diagnosing fetal alcohol syndrome was developed seven years later, in 1980 (Watts, 2004).When the pregnant woman drinks alcohol, it easily passes through the placenta to the fetus. The placenta is the organ that develops during pregnancy and provides the fetus with nutrients he needs to develop. That means when the mother has a glass of wine, so does the fetus. Alcohol breaks down much more slowly in the baby’s body than in the adult’s, so the baby is intoxicated longer than the mother. This is very dangerous and can cause lifelong damage.
Drinking alcohol stunts the baby’s growth. A baby may not be growing properly if he's not getting the oxygen and nutrient he needs to thrive. If the baby stops growing before birth an intrauterin...
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...ction. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002469/
• Johnson, A. (2011, September 08). Alcohol’s risk to fetus is long term, health advocates warn. Columbus Dispach. Retrieved from http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/09/08/alcohols-risk-to-fetus-stressed-as-long-term.html
• Jones, K. (2012). Fetal alcohol syndrome. Retrieved from http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa13.htm
• Lupton, C. (2011, December 11). The financial impact of fetal alcohol syndrome. Retrieved from http://fasdcenter.samhsa.gov/index.cfm
• Storck, S. (2010, March 21). Alcohol and pregnancy. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007454.htm
• Watts, R. (2004, March 09). The frightening irony of fetal alcohol syndrome. Times Colonist,
• Zolotova, E. (2011, November 2011). Dashed hopes; damaged lives. Fetal alcohol syndrome,
A mother who drinks while she is pregnant stands a high risk of harming their unborn child because the alcohol passes through her blood to her baby, and that can harm the development of the baby’s cells. This is most likely to harm the baby’s brain and spinal cord. Many of the common effects of a child suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is: distinctive facial features, growth problems making them smaller than the average child, and learning and behavior problems.
... excluded potential risk factors for preterm birth including previous pregnancies and multiple births. Thus, these results should only be applied to the risk of alcohol consumption for primiparous mothers with singleton pregnancies. However, despite the lack of risks identified in this study, alcohol use during pregnancy has been linked to disabilities. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP, 2011), its adverse effects include fetal alcohol syndrome, learning disabilities, social ineptness, depression, and anxiety. The AACAP strongly recommends against pregnant women consuming any form of alcohol at any level. Despite the data presented by Dale et al. (2016), the question of the other risks of alcohol consumption on the fetus was not explored and thus alcohol use during pregnancy should not be condoned solely based on this study.
There is no known safe amount of alcohol a woman can drink while pregnant. Alcohol can cause life-long physical and behavioral problems in children, including fetal alcohol syndrome. FAS is a serious condition where babies can be born with mentally ill condition and may have deformation mainly in there face. When you consume alcohol during pregnancy, so does your baby, because alcohol passes freely through the placenta to your baby. If you choose to drink alcohol while you are pregnant, you will increase the risk that your baby will be born with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Fetal alcohol syndrome is a condition in a child that results from alcohol exposure during the mother 's pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome causes brain damage and growth problems. The problems caused by fetal alcohol syndrome vary from child to child, but defects caused by fetal alcohol syndrome are
“Can I consume even a miniscule amount of alcohol?” a common, yet preposterous question asked by numerous pregnant women. The common answer given by doctors is yes, you may. Many women don’t know, but according to nofas.org, women who drink as little as two glasses of wine per day can adversely affect their offspring’s effectiveness at school. According to the Institute of Medicine 1996, “Of all the substances of abuse (including heroin, cocaine,and marijuana), alcohol by far produces the most neurobehavioral effects in the fetus”. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a possible outcome of drinking while pregnant. This horrid disease can cause aberrant facial characteristics, growth deficits, brain damage that results in mental retardation, hyperactivity,
Pregnant women who drink often miscarry or have low-birth weight infants, and are at a much greater risk of having a child who has fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can include heart defects, poor coordination, hyperactive behavior; learning and developmental disabilities, and mental retardation. These problems are long term and also come with physical deformities like a narrow head, smaller eyes, and stunted growth. These effects are more common to women who are either heavy drinkers or binge drinkers.
For many years it was believed that alcohol can affect an unborn child only after placenta and umbilical cord are fully developed. Ten to fourteen days after fertilization the egg arrives into the uterus, and nests there. In that phase there is no connection between a mother’s bloodstream and a child via umbilical cord, but while placenta is developing embryo is getting its nutrients from mother’s blood through yolk sac. The minute alcohol enters mother’s bloodstream trough her stomach and the small intestine, it will also get to the embryo by cellular processes and it will disturb the cell division.
The intake of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy can cause many different birth defects. Drugs and alcohol can easily reach the baby while inside the mother. When a pregnant woman consumes a drug or some alcohol it enters into her bloodstream, then makes its way to the placenta. When it reaches the placenta it travels through the umbilical cord to the baby’s body (Schniderman pg. 27). Once it reaches the bay it can cause a lot of different problems. Drinking alcohol can cause the baby to be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If too much alcohol gets into the baby’s bloodstream the baby will most likely have FAS. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can affect an infant after it is born or even later on in life. Kids with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can be impulsive at times, and they tend to not learn from their own mistakes and behavior unlike other children (Stewart pg. 47). Having a child with FAS could be very hard. They have difficulties trying to learn certain things. Learning from mistakes make life so much easier, and having a child who cannot do that could be very stressful. Many people put the...
Merrick J, Merrick E, Morad M, Kandel I. (2006). Fetal alcohol syndrome and its long-term effects. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Faculty of Health Sciences Jun;58(3):211-8.
Thousands of children are born with effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol. Alcohol is very dangerous to the child in the womb. In the U.S, prenatal exposure is the most common reason for birth defects. Alcohol during pregnancy may increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal alcohol syndrome, birth weight, preterm labor, and brain damage.
Chudley, A., Conry, J., Cook, J., Loock, C., Rosales, T., & LeBlanc, N. (2005). Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: Canadian Guidelines for Diagnosis. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 172(5). doi:10.1503/cmaj.1040302
In both Canada and Australia the number of babies born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders has been increasing drastically.
Alcohol, also known as ethanol, is a legal substance, which causes a person to become relaxed and “care-free”. Once alcohol is consumed, it is released into the bloodstream, which causes the brain to react, causing side effects. When a woman drinks alcohol while being pregnant, it can cause some physical and mental damage to the fetus. When a fetus is affected by alcohol exposure, it is called Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). If the affects are severe, it is then termed Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). The abnormalities occur in the central nervous system, facial structure, growth, and neurobehavioral development of the child. Severity of the damage depends on the amount of consumption, frequency, and timing of the consumption (Ungerer, Knezovich and Ramsay, 2013). Approximately 1 in 100 births have FASD effects. In the United States, 2-7 out of 1000 births are affected by FAS. 2-5% of young children in the United States and Western Europe are affected by FASD, while in Italy, the rate of FASD is 20.3-40.5 per 1000 births (Riley, Infante, Warren, 2011). These results are happening because 10-20% of women in the United States, 40% in Uruguay, and 50% of Italy consume alcohol while pregnant (Valenzuela, Morton and Diaz, 2012).
“Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol syndrome, fetal death, spontaneous abortion, and stillbirth,” says Deborah A. Appello, MS. Drinking alcohol while a woman is pregnant can be really harmful to the baby. The amount of alcohol that is in a woman’s blood is also in the baby 's blood. Alcohol can hurt the baby 's development. That 's why alcohol is much more harmful to the baby than to women during the pregnancy. Alcohol can lead the baby to have serious health conditions, called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The most serious of these is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Fetal alcohol syndrome can seriously harm your baby 's development, both mentally and physically. Alcohol can cause these defects in the baby such as having birth defects, vision and hearing problems, intellectual disabilities, learning and behavior problems. Alcohol can affect women’s reproductive systems, and damage fertility. Even small amounts can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle and reduce the chance of conceiving. Alcohol can reduce a man’s testosterone levels, leading to loss of libido. It can also damage the quality, structure and movement of sperm by stopping the liver from properly metabolizing vitamin A, which is needed for sperm development “(Alcohol and Reproduction).”Consuming alcohol prior to driving greatly increases the risk of car accidents, highway injuries, and deaths. The greater
Children can be effected by their caregiver’s alcohol and substance abuse in numerous ways. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a pattern of birth defects caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Children born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome tend to have physical abnormalities such as deformed facial characteristics. They are generally born with a variety of emotional and/or intellectual limitations. It is very common for these children to...
“I brought you into this world, and I can take you out!” A child has most likely heard that phrase at some point in their life. Although, it is not ethical or legal for a mother to “take her kid out of this world”, it does bring up a good point that it was through her body, that the child was born. One of the most important responsibilities in this world is a mother carrying a child in the womb. There are many divine processes that take place during gestation, but there are also many contributing factors from the mother that can affect the developing human. These factors may include what a woman ingests and exposes her embryo or fetus to. Sadly, alcohol use during pregnancy is an ongoing problem that can have detrimental affects on the fetus, including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Choosing to drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy is a choice, a risky choice. Unfortunately some women don’t even know they are making a risky choice by consuming alcohol because it is in the early stages of pregnancy. It is common for a female to not find out they are pregnant until at least the fifth or sixth week after fertilization. In 2006, 49% of all pregnancies in the United States were reported unintended on a national survey.1 The highest rate of preventable birth defects and mental retardation is due to alcohol use.2 In this paper, I will further discuss FAS, the potential effects of binge drinking during the embryonic stage of gestation, and what actions need to be taken in order to reduce the incidences of alcohol related birth defects.