The Effects Of Alcohol Use During Pregnancy

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“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. Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy Alcohol is an ethanol containing substance that is a common beverage in many social and private settings. Alcohol is also a teratogen, therefore alcohol co... ... middle of paper ... ... 5.5 year old children.8 Schambra et. al exposed mice to alcohol during the correlated time frame of human gastrulation and neurulation and found that exposure to alcohol during this vulnerable development time period resulted in delayed sensorimotor and physical development.11 In utero, something that can be tested is habituation, which is a decrease in responsiveness to repeated stimuli.9 In a study done by Hepper, results indicated that the fetus’ response to a binge-like alcohol exposure, increased the number of trials required to habituate and also increased the variability in performance. This could be interpreted as the alcohol negatively affecting the neural integrity and the brain areas involved in habituation, potentially the hippocampus and the pre-frontal cortex.9 Structural damage in the brain could result in abnormalities in development after birth.

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