Awareness day seeks to counter stigma of FASD
Depression and a lack of support led Maria Tvarosek to drink while pregnant with her son.
Although he was never officially diagnosed, she believes that decision led to her son developing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
“When he was born, he was hard to handle most of the time. He was always crying, and now that he’s older, he’s homeless. He doesn’t have a job. He dropped out of school,” said Tvarosek.
Now in his early 20s, she doesn’t even have a relationship with him.
“He’s in Regina, but I don’t know where,” she said as she stood outside city hall during an FASD awareness event on Friday morning.
Every year, the Regina FASD Community Network — a group of organizations, agencies and individuals who work to address the root causes of FASD — observe International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day.
Tvarosek, who lives at Souls Harbour Rescue Mission and struggles with her own cognitive disabilities, was there alongside more than 50 others to help spread awareness and reduce the stigma around FASD.
“One of the things that we want to work on is the shame and blame around mothers of children with FASD,” said Lisa Workman, cochair of the Regina FASD Community Network.
There are a number of reasons a woman may drink while pregnant, said Workman, including not knowing she’s pregnant, having been given misinformation or being “entrenched in addiction.”
“Mothers really need a lot of love and support to stay sober during pregnancy and so it’s not so easy to just say FASD is 100 per cent preventable,” she said.
Several community leaders spoke at the event — which began outside city hall and ended with a walk down to the Eagle Heart Centre for a free barbecue — including Mayor Michael Fougere, police chief Evan Bray and Dr. Susan Petryk, who specializes in the diagnosis of FASD and other developmental conditions.
“FASD is ... completely preventable in theory, but my friends, so is poverty, so is war,” said Petryk, echoing Workman’s sentiment that the causes of FASD are not simple.
But there may be hope that the issue is slowly getting the attention and care it needs.
Working in Regina for 13 years, Petryk said she has seen a shift from mostly seeing kids in foster care or adoptive homes at her clinic to receive a diagnosis, to seeing more and more kids in the care of their birth mother.
“Could this be an indication of a shift in perceptions? Or a decreasing grip of stigma?” Petryk asked the crowd. “Perhaps the campaign to bring FASD out in the open is working.”
Less stigma means families may feel more comfortable to pursue a diagnosis when their kids are young, a major factor in the success of a child with FASD, said Petryk.
For Tvarosek, she can’t go back in time and instead choose not to drink, even though she wishes she could.
What she can do is tell her story and encourage others to get the support they need to make the right decisions at the right time.
“There’s so many women out there that are lost. They’re pregnant and they don’t know what to do,” she said. “They should find help and they can turn their life around.”