Fetal_Alcohol_Syndrome

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Purpose If women didn’t drink alcohol during pregnancy, there would never be another baby born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Data from the Center of Disease Control indicates that each year more than 40,000 American children are born with defects because their mothers drank alcohol excessively while she was pregnant. This number represents approximately 2 of every 1000 of all children born in this country. Alcohol exposure in utero is also the number one cause of mental retardation in the United States, and one of the three leading causes of birth defects (CDC,1996). “Alcohol produces more significant neurobehavioral effects in the fetus than other drug including cocaine, heroin and marijuana” (Bagheri, Burd, Martsolf, & Klug, 1997). These statements provide a basic overview of why I chose this topic. I have always been amazed and horrified by the disregard for the well-being of another human that a pregnant woman can display by drinking excessively. Background FAS is a medical diagnosis that refers to a specific cluster of anomalies associated with the use of alcohol during pregnancy. The term was coined in 1973 by Jones and Smith, two physicians who were working on the alcohol, fas, children, women, drinking, pregnant, population, disease, child, problems, pregnancy, during, american, study, native, health, born, article, one, mothers, incidence, care, burd, birth, about, 1997, woman, treatment, syndrome, reported, nurses, fetal, defects, associated, affected, working, while, tolerance, time, three, seen, risk, retardation, regarding, raised, north, need, mentioned, make, likely