In France, fetal alcohol syndrome has become a real public health problem. 8,000 newborns are affected each year, making it the leading non-genetic cause of mental disability in children.
Looking back, no one really understood what the Minister of Health meant about the fight against fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). “We got the alcoholics to have a logo that explains that we should not drink any alcohol during pregnancy, it is very bad for the fetus. We are working on the size and the color” declared Agnès Buzyn on Tuesday June 26th in the show 8:30 am All Saints Day Aphatia on the chain France Info, while the logo in question has been mandatory on alcohol containers for more than 10 years.
Where article L. 3322-2 of the public health code is used to include a “health message advocating the absence of alcohol consumption by pregnant women” on bottles, boxes and other beverage packaging whose alcoholic strength exceeds 1.2 °, a decree of October 2006 fixes for its part the practical modalities. “All the packaging units for alcoholic beverages carry, under the conditions set by order of the Minister responsible for health, a health message recommending the absence of alcohol consumption by pregnant women (…). The health message is written on a contrasting background, so as to be visible, legible, clearly understandable, indelible. It must in no way be concealed, veiled or separated by other indications or images “, specifies the text of the law.
“Invest money”
“Perhaps the minister meant that the logos should be more visible and larger”, analysis in the show Feminine medicine Marie-Dominique Lamblin, pediatrician and neurophysiologist at the CHRU de Lille, cautious, before adding: “but perhaps we would benefit from investing money elsewhere, such as in television prevention campaigns or information missions in colleges and high schools “.
In France, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) has become a real public health problem. 8,000 newborns are affected each year (1% of births), which makes it the main non-genetic cause of mental handicap in children, and French women drink more and more. Among people born between 1891 and 1910, men were 2.2 times more likely than women to drink alcohol and 3 times more likely to drink alcohol problematically. A ratio fell to 1.1 and 1.2 among people between the ages of 16 and 25 today.
The phenomenon is completely trivialized
“What strikes me is that the phenomenon is completely trivialized, especially among teenage girls and young women who practice binge-drinking en masse. However, when you do not know that you are pregnant, this massive ingestion of alcohol is much more dangerous for a fetus than the weekly consumption of one or two glasses of alcohol “, warns Marie-Dominique Lamblin.” At this point, I find that we are backing down in terms of prevention. Young women today are less well informed than those of yesterday, “she laments.
Even at the very beginning of pregnancy, heavy drinking can cause irreversible damage. When a pregnant woman has a drink of alcohol, there is less alcohol in her blood than in her baby’s blood, given the fetus’ very small weight and the fact that her liver and kidney are not yet capable. to eliminate alcohol.
Multiple psychological and physical disorders
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) causes multiple psychological and physical disorders. We are talking here about possible growth delays, malformations in the cranial box and brain, nervous disorders, central nervous system anomalies that can manifest as intellectual deficits, developmental delay, learning disorders, hyperactivity, attention or memory problems, inability to control anger or difficulty in solving problems.
“Once the baby is intoxicated, there is no curative means”, Marie-Dominique Lamblin still recalls. “The message must therefore be hammered out beforehand: when you are pregnant, you should not drink alcohol at all. Even a little, even occasionally. All fetuses will certainly not be impacted in the same way by alcoholism. of their mother, but the risk is real for unborn children, without exception. When in doubt, abstinence should be appropriate, “she concludes.
Find the entire show La Médecine au feminine by Sophie Lemonier:
.