Drinking While Pregnant Essay

Superior Essays
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence believe that there is confusion about drinking during pregnancy. (British Medical Association. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders London: BMA, 200) Fetal alcohol disorders may occur in women who consume alcohol any time during pregnancy. Such as still birth, miscarriages, low birth weight babies and infertility are effects of drinking while pregnant. (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Alcohol consumption and the outcomes of pregnancyLondon: RCOG, 2006) Alcohol is a tetragons, which is something that harms the baby. The developing baby doesn’t have a blood filtration system, its unprotected from the alcohol in the blood stream. However, the amount of damage depends on the …show more content…
(Barr HM, Streissguth AP. Identifying maternal self-reported alcohol use associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2001;25:283–287.) These children’s medical bills can be up to four billion dollars, depending on the severity of the disorder. (. Lupton C, Burd L, Harwood R. Cost of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Am J Med Genet. 2004;127C:42–50) In 1899 Sullivan described these children as “born weak and silly … shriveled and old, as though they had numbered many years.” Further tests done on children born with FADS showed these children not only have physical abnormalities but also mental problems as well. (Aase JM, Jones KL, Clarren SK. Do we need the term “FAE”? Pediatrics. 1995;95:428–430) Physical abnormalities such as short palpebral fissures, a smooth philtrum, and a thin upper lip are very common. (Rosett HL. A clinical perspective of the fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. …show more content…
One way is general intelligence; many of them have an IQ score lover than seventy. (Abel & Sokol, 1987; Pulsifer, 1996) Also, in African Americans it’s been proven that for them only drinking in the third trimester is more severe. (Willford, Leech, & Day, 2006) Another aspect is problem solving and planning. Alcohol exposed children were shown to answer incorrect strategy questions and also bad time management. (Aragon, Kalberg, et al., 2008; Green, Mihic, Nikkel, et al., 2009; Kodituwakku, Handmaker, Cutler, Weathersby, & Handmaker, 1995; Mattson, Goodman, Caine, Delis, & Riley, 1999) Also, self-concept is a problem these children face, as well as abstract reasoning and the ability to shift cognitive strategies in response to feedback. (Carmichael Olson, Feldman, Streissguth, Sampson, & Bookstein, 1998; Coles et al., 1997; Kodituwakku, et al., 1995; McGee, Schonfeld, Roebuck-Spencer, Riley, & Mattson, 2008; Vaurio, Riley, & Mattson, 2008) Children exposed to alcohol consumption when they are in the uterus have been shown to lack communication skills such as, verbal and non verbal fluency. (Schonfeld, Mattson, Lang, Delis, & Riley, 2001) Another major problem is memory. They are unable to hold and use their memory for long periods of time. (Green, Mihic, Nikkel, et al., 2009; Kodituwakku, et al., 1995) These children are also slow learners. They usually take twice as long to

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