Feature Article

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a problem. It is growing every year even though there are advances in medical education. One in five hundred children born have fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, otherwise known as FAS, is a birth defect that occurs when the mother of an unborn child drinks alcohol while pregnant. For an unborn child any amount of alcohol is dangerous and can cause mental and physical retardation. The reason that alcohol causes such problems for unborn children is that the alcohol is absorbed through the placenta and gets to the developing fetus causing irreversible damage.

Figure 1
Figure 1 shows the difference between two brains of children the same age, 6 weeks old. The brain on the left is a normal brain. The one on the right is an underdeveloped brain, caused by FAS. This is a preventable birth defect. Would you risk the chance of causing this harm to a child?

Figure 2
One in five hundred children have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Once Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has taken affect the damage is irreversible. The child will go through life with physical and mental handicaps as shown in Figure 2. This can easily be avoided. No child must face this life. If every mother didn’t drink this would not happen. Some people think that one or two drinks a week is okay when you are pregnant. This may be true for some people, but would anyone want to risk the chance of hurting their unborn child? Some people don’t care, but an unborn child is the future generation. If you were adult enough to get pregnant you can be adult enough to keep yourself healthy to ensure the health of the child in your womb.
Physical Characteristics of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome include but are not limited to, a small head, thin upper lip, underdeveloped jaw, and a flat cheek area. To look at these characteristics refer to figure 3.

Figure 3

Figure 4
Figure 4, above, shows the development of a child in the womb. If a woman were to drink alcohol in excess in the first weeks of pregnancy she would be affecting the development of the child’s brain, heart, arms, eyes, and legs. Throughout the entire pregnancy the brain is being developed. At anytime during the pregnancy if the woman were to drink she could cause mental retardation to her child. We need to educate mothers fully when they are pregnant to the affects their actions have on the child within their womb.

Damage Caused by Alcohol:

1st Trimester:
causes greatest brain damage, facial malformations, miscarriage, damages heart, liver and kidneys
2nd Trimester: impairs brain development, damages muscles, teeth, bones and skin
3rd Trimester: impairs lung development, poor weight gain for fetus, causes early labor and delivery
Figure 5
The Damage Caused by Alcohol Table, Figure 5, shows the damages to the developing fetus by trimester. Again this breaks down the affects a pregnant woman’s actions have on their unborn child.
A baby girl born in 2008 in Poland was born drunk. She was over the legal limit for adults. Her blood alcohol level was .29. In perspective that would be equivalent to an adult drinking about 2 1/3 bottles of wine. That is ridiculous. The child coming into the world drunk must then be weaned off of alcohol. It is not the child’s fault but the parents.
This needs to change. People need to be more aware of the consequences of their actions. No child deserves to have the odds stacked against them purely because their parents were too naïve to think that their actions wouldn’t carry consequences for their unborn child. Is it worth it? No.