What One Should Know about Alcoholism and Pregnancy

While there are many who say that it’s okay that you drink, but not excessively, there are some who say differently. Many of them have heard about fetal alcohol syndrome and more that is caused when a woman drinks while she is pregnant.  It’s been said that a little bit of wine is good for the heart. However, there are many women out there who drink the whole time they are pregnant. They act as if there is no change to their body. There are many things that can happen if they don’t quit drinking a lot while they are pregnant.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

The one thing that happens when you drink too much while you are pregnant is called fetal alcohol dependency. You will find that there are many things that run with this. What will you find to be caused by fetal alcohol syndrome? Your baby might be small in the head and the body. You might find other developmental delays in the brain. Your baby could be deformed, have bad eye sight, or organ deformities. You might also find that your child might have some problems with their heart. The reason for the small weight features is because when the alcohol sits in the amniotic fluid and so forth, you will find that it leaves the fetus with low blood sugar. It also leaves a fetus with low insulin levels. It also leaves low thyroid. All this contributes to why they are very small. There are some really good treatment programs  for alcoholism in Ontario that can help someone in need with great success.

Your Baby Drinks what You Do

Many women forget that their baby is drinking what they drink. For some women, they might know that it’s harmful to drink while they are pregnant. For some, they might be afraid as they drank before they knew they were pregnant. Those who drink before they know they are pregnant are said to be okay if they don’t drink that much anymore once they do know. This can be something to keep in mind.

Ending Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

There are many different organizations out there that work to end this. They have given some guidelines as to how much alcohol is okay where it won’t hurt the fetus. To keep the organizations going they have walk a thons and aim to educate women about this as many aren’t aware of fetal alcohol syndrome. It is recommended that if you have a drinking problem, then you need to get help. There are many places that one can go in order to get help with learning how to stop drinking. Even when you are breastfeeding, you have to be mindful about how much you drink as this does factor into fetal alcohol syndrome as well. However, you will find that there is no cure for it as of now. Many children live with this when they shouldn’t really have to.

There is still more research that is to be done. Each time more studies are done, we learn a bit more about fetal alcohol syndrome and all that there is to it. What we learn should then be used to educate people including women who want to be mothers about the dangers. However, there will always be some who don’t pay attention to this and this is why we have those who are advocating putting an end to this. The studies have been effective thus far as percentages are lowering. However, there is still more work to be done.

^{References:
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/preg/a/aa070997.htm
http://www.estronaut.com/a/pregnancy_and_alcohol.htm
http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332_1170.asp}