But if you abstain from drinking, I can guarantee you that your child will not have an FASD. Period.

But if Merlot is worth the gamble, then that is your business–and eventually you’re child’s. But remember, it is a gamble, and you’re playing with developing cells.

the other thing they fail to mention here is it would be immoral to truly test this… imagine bringing in the pregnant mothers and setting up the groups to consume alcohol at various volumes during the pregnancy against a control group… don’t think so… not going to happen… so the precautionary principle applies… when in doubt err on the side of caution…

My husband and I adopted a little boy from Ukraine who is exceptionally bright, but pays the price every day of his life for the fact that his birth mother didn’t know or care about the damage drinking alcohol could cause. He is hearing impaired, processes information extremely slowly (I’ve heard it described as processing information at a 10 second rate in a 1 second world), has extreme challenges in understanding the complexities of social interaction and making and keeping friends, has trouble understanding and controlling his feelings and gets sooo frustrated that anyone with a heart who got to know him would NEVER drink a drop during pregnancy. An MRI clearly shows the damage to his developing brain. He tries ten times as hard as any typical child to learn half as much and all because of alcohol. I suggest you talk with adoptive moms about their children effected by alcohol and you will have a very different attitude about whether drinking during pregnancy is really worth the risk. Our son is lucky; he is continuing to learn in spite of the brain damage. Others aren’t so lucky; they are severely retarded and can never be independent. They didn’t have a choice; their drinking birth mothers did.

FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) falls on a spectrum of disorders related to prenatal exposure to alcohol, hence it is a subset of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Alcohol is the *only* cause; there are certainly risk factors associated with the likelihood of having a child that experiences an FASD, but those risk factors are *not* causes. FAS is partly defined by a set of facial features that only present if the exposure occurs during a very narrow window of time – between the days 19 and 21 of pregnancy – and they may not even know they are pregnant at the time! Outside of that window these facial features are less likely to occur, but damage to the central nervous system is still possible. Indeed, most of the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure appear in the central nervous system: problems with executive functioning, cognition, motor function, and social skills. Lack of recognition of these problems, and often because these individuals look ‘normal’ (i.e., they don’t appear to have any physical effects of prenatal alcohol exposure) they experience a disproportionately high rate of secondary disabilities over the course of their lives.

The unfortunate fact is that there are are a variety of factors that appear to contribute to how affected a particular individual will be to prenatal alcohol exposure – the mother’s ability to metabolize alcohol, the timing and amount of exposure, the embryo or fetus’ genetic makeup, the age of the mother, her BMI, whether she ate with or prior to consuming alcohol just to name a few. It is not only heavy, consistent drinkers that have a higher risk of having a child affected by prenatal alcohol exposure; women who occasionally binge drink are also at higher risk. Given this, the only safe message is that if you are sexually active and not using contraception, or you are pregnant, don’t drink alcohol. That first part *goes for men as well*, since women are more likely to drink alcohol if those in their social circle are also drinking.

Yes, there are a variety of social and cultural elements that surround alcohol consumption, especially alcohol consumption by women (issues of control, issues of women’s rights, a woman’s right to control her own body), and we need to be aware of and fight to change some of these attitudes. I fully support a woman’s right to do whatever she wants with her body (it’s hers, first and foremost), and nor am I anti-alcohol. Research shows that women who are educated about the risks are more likely to cut back on or halt their alcohol consumption. The public health message of no alcohol while pregnant is one that is designed to speak to *all* women, to make them aware of the risk. No woman ever sets out to intentionally harm their children by consuming alcohol while they are pregnant, not even those who experience addictions. This message is not about the social control of women, but about preventing the range of disabilities that have been shown to be associated with prenatal alcohol exposure and that therefore prevent individuals from experiencing their full potential.