Beer and wine labels warn pregnant women that drinking can harm the fetus.
What some mothers-to-be don’t realize, however, is how little alcohol it takes to cause damage and how early in the pregnancy it can happen, according to Teddi Roberts, program coordinator for the Colorado Springs chapter of The Arc, an organization for mental retardation.
A drink a day–possibly even before a woman knows she’s pregnant–could mean the difference between having a healthy baby and one subjected to a lifetime of learning and behavioral problems associated with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or fetal alcohol effect (FAE).
It doesn’t matter if it’s beer, wine or hard liquor; no one form is less potent then the other, says Dr. Sharon Davis, director of The Arc’s national office. In that regard, FAS is non-discriminating: neither economic nor racial status make a difference, and it can affect the baby of a social drinker or an alcoholic, she says.
Although statistics vary on how much alcohol it takes to harm a fetus, Roberts said FAS “is 100 percent preventable. Simply don’t drink while you are pregnant or possibly could get pregnant.”
That is the crux of The Arc’s public-awareness campaign as it works to give women the facts of the matter.
Because despite two decades of warnings, pregnant women are drinking at levels more dangerous to their fetus; women in general also are drinking more, according to studies. At the same time, scientists have lowered the level of drinking they believe is risky to a point most people consider social drinking–although the experts don’t always agree on the amount. Most, but not all, scientists do agree that seven drinks a week, or more than four drinks at one sitting, is the level where they start to see measurable cognitive effects such as loss of IQ, difficulties in processing information and learning problems.
At least one study has shown an increased risk of miscarriage or children born with kidney and cardiac problems associated with the mother having as few as four drinks a week.
“We simply don’t know what a safe level (of alcohol) is. It can vary depending on the chemical and physical characteristics of individual women,” Davis said. Effects also may vary with the stage of pregnancy and the amount consumed at a specific time.
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have no solid figures on how many children are affected by fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effect because there has been no mechanism to keep count and because many children go undiagnosed. There are many causes of birth defects, and unless a mother’s drinking history is known, FAS may not be suspected, Davis says.
Fetal alcohol syndrome is the name given a variety of severe physical and mental birth defects, and fetal alcohol effect is an array of less severe defects; both are caused by a woman drinking during pregnancy.
In FAS, the effects are obvious in the deformed physical features of the child, particularly through the face. The children also are generally small in stature and can be severely mentally retarded.
In FAE, the symptoms are more subtle; the child may have attention-deficit disorder, behavioral problems or a slow mental and physical development compared with his peers, Montgomery says.
Babies with FAE may have erratic sleep patterns and difficulty being consoled, which prevents bonding between mother and child, says Pam Gillen, registered nurse and state FAS coordinator for prevention programs and parent-support groups.
“The mother may begin to think the baby doesn’t like them or that they are a bad mother,” she said. Frustrations can build and in some cases result in child abuse.
Sometimes the effects of FAE may not be obvious for years, Gillen says.
By middle school age, it may manifest itself as bad behavior such as acting on impulse, poor decision-making abilities, problems with boundaries and poor peer relationships because FAS children mature slower.
“They are often kids who do something wild and outrageous because someone dared them too,” she said.
For parents, natural or adoptive, caring for a FAS or FAE child with a multitude of physical and mental problems can be difficult.
Surgery corrected some of the deformity in her hands, but nothing can reconstruct Janice Benson’s brain damaged by FAS, says her father, Dave Benson, a Colorado Springs occupational therapist.
Janice, 25, speaks with slurred speech that is sometimes hard for even her father to understand. She has poor cognitive skills and difficulty processing even the simplest information.
Benson was a single dad with two other children when he adopted Janice while serving as an Air Force officer in Mississippi. She had spent her first four years of life in foster care because her mother had been on drugs and alcohol when she was born.
“I was told I should not adopt her because she would be an institutional child,” Benson says. “I did not see that in her. As an occupational therapist, I believe a child should be as independent as possible.”
Janice now lives in a group home and is preparing to start a volunteer job. Benson hopes some day she can get a paying job and earn at least part of her own living expenses. But her skills are limited.
Parents need a lot of patience when raising a severely retarded FAS child, he says. Even simple things like learning to make a sandwich can take a lot of time.
Benson credits his two natural children, who are three and four years older than Janice, with teaching her a lot of skills, from making a bed to socializing.
