The shock toll of alcohol on unborn children revealed
SOME 600 babies are born with foetal alcohol syndrome – caused by drinking during pregnancy – in Ireland each year, the Irish Medical Organisation’s annual conference has heard.
Dr Mary O’Mahony, a specialist in public health medicine at the HSE, revealed the shocking statistic at the IMO annual general meeting in Co. Galway – and blamed the fact that ‘we haven’t been giving a consistent message to women that alcohol is unsafe during pregnancy’.
Ireland’s rate of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is among the top five highest in the world. A recent study found 80% of Irish women reported drinking while pregnant.
Drinking during pregnancy can lead to foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and the less-easyto-identify foetal alcohol syndrome disorder (FASD), Dr O’Mahony explained.
She told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘A baby born with foetal alcohol syndrome is usually smaller than normal and they would have a very small head called microcephaly.’ Dr O’Mahony also said a baby born with FAS may have certain facial features such as a thin upper lip and a small opening to the eye.
‘They could also have wider defects within their bodies,’ she said. ‘They also have brain damage and it’s irreversible. They have hearing difficulties, they have a lot of difficulties.’
Dr O’Mahony said research has shown that for ‘every 67 women who drank during pregnancy, you’d have one child born with foetal alcohol syndrome’.
She also said that for every baby born with FAS, there are ‘nine or ten’ born with FASD. She said these babies ‘don’t exhibit the characteristics’ of FAS, but ‘also suffer brain damage and would have a range of difficulties as they go through life’ – such as attention deficits, memory deficits, poor judgement and confused social skills.
Dr O’Mahony said inconsistent advice on drinking while pregnant coupled with high rates of unplanned pregnancies are the causes of high FAS and FASD occurrences in Ireland.
‘Unfortunately we haven’t been giving a consistent message to women that alcohol is unsafe during pregnancy,’ she said. ‘Alcohol is the issue.
‘It’s the societal norm in Ireland that we drink, and 40% of pregnancies are unplanned, so a woman could be drinking in pregnancy and not even realise she’s pregnant. It’s a source of grief for the family. It isn’t the mother who harms the baby – it’s the alcohol.’
Dr O’Mahony said that ‘we need to support women’, adding: ‘Clear, consistent advice is needed to abstain from alcohol throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding. Obviously the woman who drinks more is at a higher risk than the woman who drinks less, but no amount of alcohol can be said to be safe.’
Dr O’Mahony said the ‘longterm goal’ is to prevent FASD, adding: ‘It is entirely preventable and it is in our interest as a society to get this information out there.’ Dr O’Mahony said an estimated 42,000 people are living with FASD in Ireland.
Addressing the IMO meeting, she said: ‘Children with FASD fill our foster care places, adults with FAS fill our jails and many people are misdiagnosed. It’s quite a big problem.’
The IMO passed a motion yesterday launching a scheme whereby it will encourage doctors ‘to take the necessary steps to empower and educate women to abstain from alcohol throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding to prevent the occurrence of FAS and FASD’.
In January, the Mail revealed that nine babies in Ireland are born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) every month.
NAS is the term used to describe the collection of symptoms experienced by babies who are in withdrawal from substances they have been exposed to while in the womb. The symptoms include excessive highpitched crying, tremors and jerking, generalised convulsions, poor feeding and hyperthermia.
The condition is most commonly associated with the use of opiates during pregnancy, namely heroin and methadone, but prescription medication abuse has become a growing cause of NAS in recent years.
‘No amount of alcohol is safe’