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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) can occur when a mother drinks alcohol while pregnant. A fetus receives its nutrients exclusively from its mother. When a pregant mother drinks alcohol, the alcohol flows through the mother's blood stream, the alcohol then gets absorbed into the placenta and sent to the umbilical cord. This can cause damaging effects to the development of the baby. There is no known safe amount of consumption of alcohol for pregnant women. Since the baby is in a constant state of growth during pregnancy, alcohol can negatively affect the baby at any time, even in the weeks before women knew they were pregnant. Many experts report that abstaining from alcohol all together during pregnancy is the safest way to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome (Facts, 2015).
Misconceptions One of the most important developmental times in a baby’s life is in the mother's womb. Recently, there has been some confusion as to if drinking while pregnant is safe. Media outlets such as CNN released a study that was done in the United Kingdom stating that drinking alcohol during pregnancy is safe. Those particular studies claim that children of mothers that drank alcohol were in better health than those mothers that abstained. They did not take into consideration other environmental factors that could have affected those they did the study on. FAS occurs in many different facets of society, however, it is most prominent with mothers that have a history of substance abuse, are a single parent, have more than three children and have previously lost other children to the foster care system (Welch-Carre, 2005). Even with this research, all other experts caution to pregnant women that there is no known safe consumption of alcohol. It is best to avoid alcohol while pregnant. |