My Mother, The Alcoholic
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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. Some individuals with fetal alcohol syndrome may show no signs or symptoms of this condition after infancy.
The changes depend on the amount, frequency and the timing of the consumption of alcohol by the mother during pregnancy. The first three months of pregnancy is the time in which vital organs like the heart and the kidney are developing. Drinking alcoholic beverages in that time period can be especially harmful.
Can Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Be Prevented Or Avoided?
Although drinking small amounts does not cause facial abnormalities, it may cause behavioral problems. Alcohol crosses the blood–brain barrier and both directly and indirectly affects a developing fetus. The concept Fetal Alcohol Syndrome refers to a set of birth defects that occur in children born to mothers who abused alcohol during pregnancy. The alcohol-induced defects include pre- and post-natal growth deficiencies, minor facial abnormalities, and damage to the developing central nervous system . The severity of birth defects associated with FAS can vary depending on the intensity, duration, and frequency of exposure to alcohol during gestation.
Fetal alcohol syndrome .This is the most severe effect of drinking 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. When evaluating a patient for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, each of the five conditions that comprise fetal alcohol spectrum disorders has specific diagnostic criteria.
In addition to these dose-related concerns, maternal factors such as the mother’s genetics or how quickly she metabolizes alcohol, and the timing of exposure during prenatal development also impact alcohol-induced abnormalities. As birth defects and anomalies can arise when pregnant women consume alcohol, alcohol is a teratogen, an environmental agent that negatively impacts the course of normal embryonic or fetal development. The term fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, or FASDs, describes a broad group of conditions that an individual can have as a result of prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol alters the development of the brain and many other body organs of the developing fetus. People with FASDs show a combination of physical, emotional, behavioral, and learning issues that range from mild to severe.
In Victoria, there have been no registered FASD related births for indigenous Australians, but the rate for the general population in Victoria is 0.01–0.03 per 1000 births. There have been no dedicated FASD clinics within Western Australia, but there are also no nationally supported diagnostic criteria anywhere in Australia.
If you do decide to drink alcohol in pregnancy, try to avoid alcohol completely in the first 3 months. Studies have shown that heavy drinking during pregnancy, usually measured as repeatedly consuming more than around five units of alcohol per day, carries the greatest risk of a baby being affected with FAS. In addition to those proposed apopototic mechanisms, alcohol damages the neural stem cell progenitor pools, like radial glia, that give rise to neurons and the supporting glial cells in the CNS. In addition to forming cells in the CNS, radial glia provide a physical scaffolding for, and chemically guide the neurons they form. Damage to these cell populations can decrease their volumes and it can cause structural abnormalities, which can impact the CNS from its initial development through to the development of neural networks. The father and/or current partner of the pregnant woman can play a big part in helping the mother remain alcohol free during her pregnancy. Family, friends and other support systems can also play a positive role.
Risk Factors
In terms of neural development, which occurs throughout pregnancy, it is often the inter-neuron connections that are damaged. Charness et al report that even at low concentrations of ethanol exposure, cell adhesion molecules are inhibited.
Further, 73% of the case notes made no record of maternal alcohol consumption despite the mothers being known to be in a high risk group. As reflected in the term, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder , prenatal alcohol exposure can result in myriad abnormal endpoints. While the emphasis in this chapter is on alcohol-induced neuroteratogenesis, non-neural tissues and organs, including facial and ocular structures, the heart, and limbs, are also frequently involved as part of FASD.
In neonates, it is crucial to get a good prenatal history to determine prenatal alcohol exposure. For older children and young adults, the primary indicative history will be those areas pertaining to neurocognitive and behavioral impairment. Their history will point to the fact that those with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders have a high incidence of emotional and behavioral problems. Sorry, but there is no known safe amount of alcohol that women can drink while pregnant. Any time a pregnant woman engages in regular drinking, she increases her chance of having a spontaneous abortion and puts her unborn child at risk for growth deficiencies, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Fas
Nonetheless, recognising the condition, obtaining sufficient early evidence and using resources locally available in collaboration with multi-professional colleagues can reap important rewards. By combining these multi-professional agencies in a single setting, as is the case in other parts of the world, has the outcome of potentially facilitating a seamless approach to the condition and the experience for the patient. Further management involves a wide range of health professionals, many of whom may not be aware of the issues facing them. Clinical genetics services and access to clinical psychology and speech and language therapy may in some areas be limited. The provision of specialist schools, whilst useful, is not available in the UK specifically for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Those children in the general special needs school set-up in the UK anecdotally seem to do better than those who remain in the mainstream. Since the naming of fetal alcohol syndrome in 1973 there has been some controversy as to its actual existence.
Due to the level of children coming through the care system, attachment disorders are often viewed as the sole cause of presenting signs and symptoms and this can lead to misunderstandings about therapeutic support needs. Of all the substances of abuse alcohol produces by far the most serious neuro-behavioural effects to the foetus . Prenatal exposure is caused by alcohol crossing the placenta and within minutes, the level of alcohol in the foetus’ blood reaches maternal blood alcohol level.
Is There Any Kind Of Alcohol That Is Safe To Drink During Pregnancy?
Cleveland Clinic Children’s is dedicated to the medical, surgical and rehabilitative care of infants, children and adolescents. Someone with a FASD may have just a few or many symptoms, and these symptoms can range in intensity from mild to severe. Different terms are used to describe the FASDs, depending on which symptoms are present.
- Direct effects of alcohol dependence on the cardiovascular system and cardiac rhythm in the general population have already been reported; however the pathogenetic mechanisms related to the pro-arrhythmic effects of alcohol are still unclear.
- Jacobson summarised the cognitive deficits associated classically with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
- The alcohol in the blood of the mother moves to the blood of the fetus.
- These behaviors contribute to an increased incidence of alcoholism/alcohol abuse in adults, which in turn begets children who are exposed to alcohol in utero.
- Sequelae include perturbations to affect regulation and cognition, as well as to physical appearance manifested via pathognomonic anomalies.
- Fetal alcohol syndrome, a disorder characterized by growth retardation, facial abnormalities, and central nervous system dysfunction , is caused by a woman’s use of alcohol during pregnancy.
From associations with alcohol exposure, we are aware that that damage is widespread, causing not only a decrease in brain volume but also damage to structures within the brain. We also know from associations that high levels of alcohol consumption in the first trimester resulted in an increased likelihood of facial and brain anomalies. High levels of alcohol consumption in the second trimester are associated with increased incidences of spontaneous abortions. Lastly, in the third trimester, high levels of alcohol consumption are associated with decreased height, weight, and brain volume. Associations with alcohol exposure show that the neurobehavioral deficits associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders can occur within a wide range of exposure to alcohol and at any point in the pregnancy. Prenatal exposure to alcohol is associated with a variable spectrum of effects referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders , with fetal alcohol syndrome at the most severe end of that spectrum. Children with fetal alcohol syndrome disorder may have clinically significant CNS involvement but few or no characteristic physical features.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
These have subsequent effects on neuronal migration, fasciculation and synaptogenesis, which are all vital to the developing brain. These risk factors, as well as protective factors, need further clarification. A majority 74% felt that drinking in pregnancy was acceptable and 65% reported they had received little or no information from their midwife about possible dangers.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome This is the most severe diagnosis in the FASD spectrum. To receive this diagnosis, there must be three facial malformations , growth deficiency, and central nervous system damage. Diagnosis is possible without confirmation of maternal alcohol use during pregnant. The Recovery Village aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with a substance use or mental health disorder with fact-based content about the nature of behavioral health conditions, treatment options and their related outcomes. We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals.