We know it, to drink alcohol during pregnancy is not without risk. And the brain is often the most damaged organ and you don’t see it right away.
Among the symptoms of FAS: psychomotor retardation, attention and language disorders, learning difficulties at school, behavioral disorders, social exclusion or delinquency for 1 in 100 children affected by Fetal Alcoholic Disorders (FASD) .
1 in 1,000 children affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome experience severe growth retardation, facial dysmorphia, brain damage, intellectual disability, heart, eye, skeletal and kidney defects.
These disorders affect 8,000 babies each year in France. They represent the leading cause of mental impairment and maladjustment in France. Yet, they are quite preventable.
In view of the risks and according to the precautionary principle, health authorities recommend that French women refrain from all alcohol consumption during pregnancy, then throughout the period of breastfeeding.
Too many women drink during pregnancy
However, it often appears from the results of surveys on the subject that women misunderstand abstinence recommendations. They know little about the consequences of alcohol consumption on the unborn child.
17 to 25% of French women continue to to drink regularly drink alcohol while pregnant, despite the now widely hammered message “Zero alcohol during pregnancy”.
“Tackling this syndrome is to gain confidence in people’s privacy, their alcohol consumption, their illnesses, their pasts, their lives. This confidence building is essential for detecting alcohol consumption in mothers and helping them to stop. This prevention work has already borne fruit, ”recalls the association in a press release. “Thanks to this work, several births have been spared”.
