Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
What is FAS?
Drinking any kind of alcohol during pregnancy can damage a fetus and cause fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Children with FAS can have physical, mental, and behavior problems. Whenever alcohol is consumed it gets into the blood system. If a pregnant women drinks alcohol, it passes from her blood system to her unborn baby through the umbilical cord. Drinking alcohol during the first stages of pregnancy can cause facial and other physical defects in the fetus. Drinking at anytime during the pregnancy carries a very high risk that the fetus will suffer stunted growth and harm to the brain. No type of alcoholic beverage is safe for a pregnant woman: beer, wine, hard liquor, any type at all.
Babies with FAS are usually born underweight. Throughout their lives they can have trouble with problem solving, learning, memory, and attention. It is possible they will have hearing difficulties, speech disorders, and be impulsive. FAS affects coordination, also.
No cure for FAS has yet been found. Children will not outgrow it. Adults with FAS more often than not have great difficulty keeping a job, staying in relationships. They often end up with legal difficulties, or in jail.
Sometimes children of mothers who drank alcohol during pregnancy do not display all the effects of FAS. They may have one or more symptoms, but not all, referred to as fetal alcohol effects (FAE). Those who display either physical, mental, behavioral, and/or learning disabilities are said to have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). No cure is available for people with FASD.
Other names for alcohol related defects are: Alcohol related birth defects (ARBD). Children may have defects affecting the heart, face, brain, eyes, or limbs.
Alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND). These children may have brain damage causing milder symptoms of FAS or FASD.
Common Problems for FAS Victims:
- Abnormal facial features such as flat cheeks, short noses, very thin upper lips, or short eye openings.
- Learning and behavior problems
- Brain damage, possible mental retardation
- Undersized and unusually short
There is no cure for any of the above syndromes. But many of the symptoms can be treated. Eye glasses help with vision. Hearing aids help with hearing. Special services, some through the educational system, some not, are available to help children learn to live on their own as adults. Not all can be helped to a point where they can live an independent life.
Not all children of mothers who drank alcohol during pregnancy will suffer with FAS or any of the others, but why risk it? FAS and the other syndromes mentioned are not curable. They are a lifelong sentence.
Do not drink any alcohol when you are pregnant. If you plan on getting pregnant, or if there is a chance that you may become pregnant, don’t drink.
