What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome & Its Precautionary Measures

By      09-Sep 2020       Reading Time: 6 Mins

What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome & Its Precautionary Measures

Women who consume alcohol during pregnancy can give birth to babies with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), sometimes known as FASDs. FASD is the umbrella term for a range of disorders. These disorders can be mild or severe and can cause physical and mental birth defects.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a severe form of the condition. People with FAS may have problems with their vision, hearing, memory, attention span, and abilities to learn and communicate. While the defects vary from one person to another, the damage might be permanent.

Causes
When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, some of that alcohol easily passes across the placenta to the fetus. The body of a developing fetus doesn’t process alcohol the same way as an adult does. The alcohol is more concentrated in the fetus, and it can prevent enough nutrition and oxygen from getting to the fetus’s vital organs.

Symptoms
Since fetal alcohol syndrome signifies a wide range of problems, there are many possible symptoms. The severity of these symptoms ranges from mild to severe, and some of these can include:

  • delayed development and problems in thinking, speech, movement, and social skills
  • poor judgment
  • problems seeing or hearing
  • learning disabilities
  • intellectual disability
  • heart problems
  • kidney defects and abnormalities
  • deformed limbs or fingers
  • mood swings

Diagnosis
The earlier the diagnosis, the better the outcome. Consult your doctor if you think your child might have FAS. Talk to your doctor if you drank while you were pregnant.

A physical exam of the baby may show a heart murmur or other heart problems. As the baby matures, there may be other signs that help confirm the diagnosis.

The signs could be:

  • slow rate of growth
  • abnormal facial features or bone growth
  • hearing and vision problems
  • slow language acquisition
  • small head size
  • poor coordination

To diagnose someone with FAS, the doctor should look for any abnormal facial features, slower than normal growth, and central nervous system problems. These nervous system problems could be physical or behavioral. They might present as hyperactivity, lack of coordination or focus, or learning disabilities.

How can fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) be prevented?
Consuming alcohol during pregnancy is the leading cause of preventable birth defects, developmental disabilities, and learning disabilities. The only way to prevent FAS is for a woman to avoid drinking alcoholic beverages during pregnancy. Women should also not drink alcohol if they are sexually active and not using effective birth control. It can take 4 to 6 weeks before a woman knows she is pregnant, during which time a developing fetus could be exposed to alcohol.

If a woman has already consumed alcohol during pregnancy, it is never too late to stop. Brain growth in the fetus takes place throughout pregnancy, so stopping alcohol consumption as soon as possible is always better than not stopping at all.

Lastly, once the baby is born a mother should not drink alcohol during the entire period in which she is breastfeeding or lactating. This is because alcohol will affect the breast milk. Although this is not directly linked to FASDs, alcohol in breast milk can cause problems in a child’s development and cause problems with sleep and learning.

Over to you
Damage to foetus due to alcohol can be done in the first few weeks of pregnancy when a woman might not yet know that she is pregnant and may still consume the same and the risk increases if the mother is a heavy drinker. Alcohol use appears to be most harmful during the first three months of pregnancy. However, consumption of alcohol any time during pregnancy can be harmful.

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