RELEASE: September 24, 2003

Previous Screen

Guest Editorial & Media Alert

Expectant mothers need to know of alcohol’s dangerous effects on the unborn
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome awareness events help spread the word in NJ 

By Deborah Cohen, director, NJ Office for Prevention of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

On any given day in the United States, 10,657 babies are born, 120 of which will have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder. The cost for American taxpayers for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is estimated to be $5 million a day United States ($1.9 billion/year: National Institute on Drugs and Alcohol), with the comprehensive lifetime cost of just one baby with FAS as much as $4 million (FAS Community Resource Center). And all of this is completely preventable if all mothers do not drink at any point during the entire nine months of pregnancy.

How does FAS affect children?
FAS is an array of permanent, non-curable birth defects and physical malformations caused by alcohol exposure during pregnancy. It is 100% preventable. Alcohol exposure can cause facial anomalies (narrow width of the eyes, no narrow groove under the nose, and an extremely thin upper lip), growth retardation, and central nervous system abnormalities such as attention deficits, hyperactivity, autistic-like behavior, memory and learning problems, sensory integration and mental health problems, behavioral disabilities, and poor decision-making abilities.

Nationally, 55,000 children are born each year with FAS, only 5,000 of whom are properly diagnosed because they show the facial abnormalities, but all of whom have some level of mental retardation. Contrary to well-meaning family and friends who may urge an expectant mother to indulge with a casual, “Oh, just have a little drink to relax,” the brain of the fetus is vulnerable to alcohol damage every single day it is in the womb.
National experts to converge on New Jersey for FAS National Convention

We feel so strongly about getting this message out to prospective parents that New Jersey’s Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Task Force will hold a conference on October 27-28 in Atlantic City, to mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first articles describing the clinical characteristics of FAS in the international medical journal The Lancet. Because our FAS Task Force, a committee of the Governor’s Council on the Prevention of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, is a national leader in FAS awareness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities has signed on as a co-sponsor, making this a “national conference.” The conference theme is The Truth and Consequences of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and one of the authors of the original articles, Dr. Ken Jones, will be the opening keynote speaker.

Consider these facts:

The national conference will culminate a month of activities across New Jersey.

The Hudson Perinatal Consortium (HPC) held an FAS Awareness Day Breakfast in its offices in Jersey City on September 9 for city officials, other dignitaries, treatment providers, health clinics, and local agencies. Places of worship rang bells at nine minutes after nine a.m. and various mayors and councils across Hudson County and the state introduced proclamations in observance of FAS Day.

On September 20th, as he has done for the last three years, Prevention Coordinator for The Arc of Atlantic County Brian Illencik went to the Babies R Us store in Mays Landing to speak to expectant mothers and hand out drinking glasses with a picture of a baby looking upside down through its diaper saying “Think Before You Drink.” He also thanked family physicians and OB/GYN offices for displaying FAS informational materials in their waiting rooms. Illencik finds that “some of the older doctors still think it’s not that big a deal for a pregnant woman to relax with glass of wine or two.”

Finally, in South Jersey, The Arc of Burlington County’s Citizen Advocacy Program (CAP) will hold its first Pregnant Pause on Tuesday, October 7th from 6 to 9 p.m. at Lamberti’s Cucina on Route 38 in Mt. Holly. Pregnant Pause is a community education campaign touting the dangers of prenatal alcohol exposure. This FREE baby shower is open to all pregnant women in Burlington County, offering “a night of FREE food, fun and prizes as we talk about healthy pregnancies!!” said Lorraine Travaglione of the county’s CAP. “Games and entertainment will interweave education about how to have a healthy baby, addressing alcohol, smoking, drugs, and good pre-natal care.” To register, call 609-267-5880 by October 1st.

It is really quite amazing that so many of us may have escaped FAS ourselves, given the prevalent cultural acceptance of “having a drink to relax” that has existed since Prohibition was lifted. Hopefully, with continued awareness efforts, fewer and fewer of today’s children will suffer the consequences of this old habit.

Deborah Cohen
Ms. Cohen is Director of the NJ Office for Prevention of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities in Trenton. For additional information about FAS, International FAS Day and the 30th Anniversary FAS Conference, contact her at 609-984-3351 or deborah.cohen@dhs.state.nj.us. Or contact Ann Wilson, Director of the New Jersey Coalition for Prevention of Developmental Disabilities of The Arc of New Jersey at 732-246-2525, ext. 23 or awilson@arcnj.org. Brochures, registration forms and information about the FAS conference, are available online:
http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/OPMRDD/FASconfbrochure-p1.pdf

# # #

The brain on the left shows brain damage resulting from prenatal alcohol, compared to the healthy brain on the right.

# # #