Fetal Alcohol Syndrome FAS

Alcohol use during this time could negatively impact the baby. Experts know that fetal alcohol syndrome is completely preventable if women don’t drink alcohol at all during pregnancy. The more alcohol you drink during pregnancy, the greater the chance of problems in your baby. There’s no known safe amount of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The more you drink while pregnant, the greater the risk to your unborn baby. Your baby’s brain, heart and blood vessels begin to develop in the early weeks of pregnancy, before you may know you’re pregnant.

• Anyone who is pregnant should have regular care throughout the pregnancy.
• Over time, a number of secondary effects can happen in people with FAS, particularly in those who aren’t treated for the condition in childhood.
• This may be due, in part, to a lack of information about prenatal alcohol exposure or difficulty in distinguishing FASD from other developmental disorders that might have similar cognitive or behavioral symptoms.
• Physicians must accurately obtain the medical history of the mother and provide safe antenatal care and education for FAS once maternal alcohol consumption is confirmed.
• These can be a good source of advice and they may be able to connect you with other people in a similar situation.

They might present as hyperactivity, lack of coordination or focus, or learning disabilities. There is no “safe” amount of alcohol that pregnant women can drink. And there is no time during pregnancy when it’s considered safe to drink alcohol, either. Some of the most severe problems happen when a pregnant woman drinks in the first trimester, when the baby’s brain starts to develop.

What’s the difference between fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs)?

Specifically, animal and human studies have shown that binge drinking is more detrimental to fetal development than constant drinking [24–27]. Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of 5 or more drinks on a single occasion (a standard drink is defined as approximately 14 g of pure alcohol) [24,28]. This is because a higher peak blood alcohol concentration worsens fetal brain damage and leads to prolonged alcohol exposure; therefore, metabolizing all the alcohol that has been consumed takes time [24]. Recently, several studies have objectively assessed the patterns of maternal alcohol consumption and identified infants who exhibit FAS-related deficits in growth by biological analysis [29–32]. Children can be diagnosed with partial forms of fetal alcohol syndrome if they show the abnormal features even when there is no clear proof that their mother drank alcohol during pregnancy.

When researching and identifying treatment options, you may inquire about whether they accept pregnant women with alcohol use disorder (AUD). If so, the facility likely will schedule the caller for an evaluation to determine if their clinical and medical programming is suitable to the patient’s needs. If they align, the facility will schedule an intake, or an in-depth assessment.

What causes fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)?

During early pregnancy, the fetus is already developing rapidly. Alcohol consumption could harm the developing fetus at any time during pregnancy — especially early on in the development process. Any amount of alcohol during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Damage to your developing baby can happen at any point during pregnancy. All alcohol, including beer, wine, ciders and hard liquor can all cause FAS.

Once maternal alcohol consumption is confirmed, physicians should provide objective information on FAS and educate patients on neutral grounds [52]. Above all, it is important for women to be aware of their overall drinking patterns. Women should be educated about immediate alcohol discontinuation fetal alcohol syndrome once pregnancy is confirmed and encouraged to undergo antenatal care. Clinicians should also identify maternal high-risk groups for prenatal alcohol exposure according to their drinking patterns. Different patterns of alcohol consumption during pregnancy can have various effects on the fetus.

Conditions

Alcohol is the single most important factor in FAS, and there is no safe trimester or known safe amount to drink alcohol during pregnancy [12]. Physicians must accurately obtain the medical history of the mother and provide safe antenatal care and education for FAS once maternal alcohol consumption is confirmed. If the prevalence of FAS is decreased, it will be possible to reduce the financial burden on society and unrealized human suffering [12].

• Sometimes this can result in mental and physical problems in the baby, called foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
• The alcohol can damage the baby’s organs or cause other harm.
• Parents can also receive parental training tailored to the needs of their children.
• Babies born to mothers who drink during pregnancy may have serious health problems.
• Certain alcohol or substance use treatment centers even cater to the unique needs of pregnant women.

Parent training can help caregivers learn how to best care for a child with FAS and handle any problem behaviors. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a 30-bed referral center for critically ill infants requiring complex medical and surgical care. Most often, FAS is diagnosed based on the mother’s history and the appearance of your baby, based on a physician examination by a physician. Most people with an FASD have most often been misdiagnosed with ADHD due to the large overlap between their behavioral deficits.

Some children with partial fetal alcohol syndromes show only some of the features. This may be called “fetal alcohol effects.” When a pregnant person drinks alcohol later in pregnancy, sometimes the physical facial features do not develop in the child, but the other problems still happen. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a condition that develops in a baby exposed to alcohol before birth. A child with fetal alcohol syndrome may have specific abnormal facial features, small head size, and problems with development including delayed language, learning, and poor impulse control.

• There are also facial features that are characteristic of babies with FAS.
• “Binge drinking” (having 3 or more drinks at a time) is especially dangerous for your baby.
• Several methods can be employed to explore the teratogenicity of alcohol, and established medical databases can be used as valuable resources for retrospective cohort studies of FAS [46].
• Parents might learn different routines and rules that can help their child adapt to different situations.
• Alcohol consumption could harm the developing fetus at any time during pregnancy — especially early on in the development process.

Thus, a case-control design is usually used to study FAS; however, the results from such studies could be limited in terms of generalization [46]. Prenatal alcohol exposure and central nervous system (CNS) involvement are factors common to the disorders encompassing FASD. Evidence of CNS involvement can be structural (e.g., small brain size, alterations in specific brain regions) or functional (e.g., cognitive and behavioral deficits, motor and coordination problems). A permanent condition, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) happens when a person consumes any amount of alcohol during a pregnancy. Alcohol use during pregnancy can interfere with the baby’s development, causing physical and mental defects. Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most severe condition within a group of conditions called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs).

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