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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

What can happen to a fetus when a pregnant women drinks heavily during her pregnancy?

It can lead to permanent, irreversible and incurable effects that will bring a lifetime of pain for

both the child and the family. These permanent and unchangeable effects arise from a fetus

attaining fetal alcohol syndrome from its mother. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a pattern of

malformations and disabilities resulting from a pregnant woman drinking heavily during her

pregnancy. FAS is unique in that effects on the children are directly linked to maternal drinking

habits. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is currently the leading cause of mental retardation in the United

States. A baby with FAS can suffer from mental retardation, central nervous dysfunction, organ

dysfunction, facial abnormalities and many other effects. At least 5,000 to 10000 infants are born

each year in America with FAS. There is a little less then a 50% chance that the new born child,

whose mother drank heavily during pregnancy, will be born with FAS. Even if the child is not

born with FAS, there is a better then 50% chance that the child will have many Fetal Alcohol

Effects (FAE) from maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy (Berhow 364). Each infant

that is born with FAS is a large financial burden. The institutional and medical costs for one child

with FAS is an average of over a million dollars during the child's lifetime. Whatever the mother

drinks while she is pregnant, the child inside her is drinking. If the mother gets drunk from

consuming to much alcohol so will her child. A mother's high risk behavior during pregnancy

effects the child more then it might effect her. But FAS is a syndrome that is 100% preventable.

The only way to prevent FAS is for a pregnant woman to abstain from drinking alcohol during her

entire pregnancy.

"In a broad sense FAS may be viewed as a repercussion of an external...