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Alcohol and Pregnancy: What are the risks? / Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
No mother deliberately sets out to harm her baby and the risk to the foetus is hard to preduct. Because there is no established "safe drinking level" for pregnant women, the advice for pregnant women, and those thinking about becoming pregnant, is to remain abstinent from alcohol.
However, women who have drunk alcohol before they realised they were pregnant, may be advised that the risk to the foetus is still low if they immediately cease drinking.
Alcohol and Pregnancy: What are the Risks?
Alcohol is a teratogen, meaning that it is a substance that can damage the foetus.
Alcohol can seriously damage the foetus at every stage of pregnancy.
When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, it quickly reaches the foetus. The placenta does not provide a barrier. Alcohol can structurally damage the brain, heart, and limbs. Physical deformaties and organic brain damage results.
The degree of damage depends on several factors:
- Stage of Development of the foetus
Different parts of the body develop at different times during pregnancy.
- How much the mother drinks during pregnancy
There is no evidence of a "safe drinking level" when pregnant. However, larger amounts of alcohol can cause an increased amount of damage.
- The pattern and timing of drinking
A single drink once a week spaced over a number of hours will have a different effect on the foetus than drinking large amounts over small periods of time, or drinking constantly over a number of days.
Below, is a popular diagram showing the vulnerability of a growing baby during each stage of development. There remains some
What is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder?
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is an umbrella term used to describe a range of disabilities resulting from a mother's use of alcohol during pregnancy. It is now the leading cause of non-genetic birth defects and brain damage in children.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder includes:
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome / Alcohol-related Birth Defects
- Neonatal Withdrawal Symptoms
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
A diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is based on a scaled rating of:
- Physical Growth Deficiencies
- Distinct Facial Features
- Brain Dysfunction
- Exposure to Alcohol during pregnancy.
The more apparent these effects are, the more likely a diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If these conditions are not as pronounced, or one of these variables is not present, the diagnosis may be Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS).
 
Partial FAS and Alcohol-Related Birth Defects
Alcohol can affect the foetus in ways that are not physically or immediately obvious. Individuals with this disorder have some, but not all the diagnostic characteristics of FAS. They can have significant deficits in behavioural and social abilities.
Neonatal Withdrawal Signs
Distress in a newborn as it withdraws from being exposed to substances while in the womb, such as heroin, morphine and alcohol. Alcohol presents more long-lasting damage.
Individuals suffering the effects of FASD can look physically normal. They still have intellectual, behavioural and social disabilities.
FASD may present itself in 'typical' behaviour for the age. But in children affected by FASD, this behaviour occurs in grossly exaggerated form and does not respond to conventional treatment or intervention. Examples as follows:
Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers:
- Danger to themselves and others as they do not understand the concept of 'cause and effect'.
- Deficient in normal sequential learning abilities.
Children:
- Impulsive, unpredictable and mischievious, causing ongoing safety hazards (eg, setting fires and running away
- Lack of ability to make and keep friends on their own
- Often disconnected from their own feelings and are unable to identify or express logical reasons behind their behaviour
- Often isolated and lonely (desire to be included remains intact while reasoning skill to figure out why they are excluded is lacking)
- Void of natural empathy for others
Adolescents:
- Problems with cause and effect relationships, and impulse control
- Problems with abilities to generalise information, and with understanding concepts and abstract thought
- Problems with ability to conceptualise, internalise, and structure time
- Unable/Unwilling to take responsibility for actions
Aditionally, as pFAS often goes unnoticed and untreated, individuals with pFAS are at a higher risk of developing secondary disabilities than FAS children.
These include mental health problems, disrupted school experience, problems with the law, inappropriate sexual behaviours and alcohol/drug problems.
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