So, I looked up Kathryn Page PHD, and she is big in the world of FAS. Her site: http://www.nofas.org/resource/results.aspx?ST=5&Name=California
She blaims FASD on everything from Epilepsy to loneliness. Thus clearly it a problem if it can cause any problem, and thus you cannot prove anything because, as suprising as it maybe, even women how do not drink have children, who may at sometime be lonely. However by far, my favorite line about FAS comes from a BBC article that is supposed to tell women not to drink, even one drink from the time they start trying to get pregnant till the baby pops out; however the following sentence makes me wonder
“Light drinking is not harmful but the only way to guarantee your baby won’t be affected is not to drink at all.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/619840.stm
What does that sentence even mean? It is like saying “The only way to prevent the unborn from getting hit by cars in side their mother’s womb is to stay at home, far from cars” instead of telling women to look both ways before crossing the street.
The end on this rather morbid, but fun topic!
You are so right about about that sentence from the BBC–it doesn’t make sense. And it’s wrong. There is good research (I’ll give you the citations if you want) showing that light drinking does indeed cause memory and learning problems.
The thing is of course it doesn’t happen to every fetus–some are protected genetically (it turns out that there is a genetic combination that leaves you more open to fetal damage).
best,
kathy
I am the adoptive mom to two children with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders), my son is 9 and my daughter, his biological sister, is 5. I am also the sister of 3 brothers and one sister, all now adults, who my parents adopted in the late 1970s who were prenatally exposed to alcohol but were never formally diagnosed with an FASD.
FASD is real and it can be devastating to the families living with it. You or your friends may have a drink or two during pregnancy and never notice any effects with your children but that does not make the risk any less real.
My son was initially diagnosed with ADHD and on the autism spectrum (PDD) before the pieces of the puzzle started coming together and his birthmom talked about her alcohol use during her pregnancy with him. My son looks normal (no facial features of FAS and normal growth patterns) and he has an average IQ. He certainly isn’t the only one who has had a misdiagnosis of what was really an FASD. We are truly in our infancy in understanding the damage done to brain cells by alcohol but what we do know is clear enough for there to be a consistant message of “no safe amount and no safe time during pregnancy”.
I am all for the rights of women to make choices about what goes in to their bodies, but my daughter’s right to be able to live independently and make good choices about relationships, money matters, career, etc… was taken from her by the alcohol. She is in speech, occupational, physical and social skills therapy several times a week. She is in special education at school even though her IQ, like most people with an FASD, is in the average range. She is extremely hyperactive, cannot pay attention for more than a few seconds and she has behaviors that make it unsafe for her to be unsupervised for any amount of time. She will always need the assistance of someone else in her life. My daughter will never be a woman like you who is able to weigh options and make informed choices because her brain has been permanently damaged.
I know you wanted to have the last word on this subject but my hope is that you will continue to research and have discussions about it. We just don’t know how much alcohol is too much. We don’t know the resiliency of a particular fetus or the health factors that mom has which may contribute to the damage. What we do know is that alcohol and pregnancy is a bad combination and 9 months is nothing compared to a lifetime of struggling to help a child whose brain does not work the way it should. ~Kari
http://www.mofas.org/download_files/DrinkingADHD.pdf
http://www.mofas.org/download_files/LightDrinking.pdf