I'm reposting this from our adoption agency website (http://www.chosenchildtx.org/) because it's such an important topic and because I know that some of you reading my blog are currently working with teenage girls, teenmoms and are thinking about adoption.

If you have any questions, just ask.

 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

Apr 27, 2012 by Laura

The Chosen Child staff attended a seminar this morning on the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders or FASD). Dr. Toosje Thyssen VanBeveren, a professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the Univeristy of Texas in Dallas, has dedicated much of her studies to this topic and presented her findings in this seminar. We were very enlightened and would like to share some of the information that we gained.

While one mother who consumes alcohol during pregnancy may give birth to a baby affected by a FASD, another mother who has consumed alcohol during pregnancy may deliver a perfectly healthy baby. Sometimes, there is just no way to know ahead of time which child will or will not be affected. However, there are three factors that can contribute to these differences:

1. Amount of alcohol that is consumed
2. Individual differences in metabolic capacities in mothers and in unborn children
3. Timing of alcohol use:

a. Period of pre-implantation (conception to 10-12 days after conception), during which alcohol will not affect the developing organism.
b. Period of embryonic development (10-12 days to end of 8th week), in which all major organs and tissue will develop. Alcohol may affect the formation of these organs and tissue.
c. Period of fetal development (end of 8th week to birth), which is the time of growth and maturation. Infants exposed to alcohol during this time may be smaller and have lower birth weight.
Note: The developing brain is vulnerable during almost all nine months of pregnancy.

Alcohol is a teratogen, which is defined as an agent or condition that disrupts typical development and causes physical and behavioral abnormalities in the developing embryo or fetus. Teratology has four principles:

1. Death
2. Facial abnormalities and birth defects
3. Growth deficiencies or growth retardation
4. Central nervous system dysfunction, including damage to the brain

While not all of these are not guaranteed consequences of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, each one is a possibility.

If you are a pregnant birth mother, it is important for you to know the affects of alcohol consumption during this time in your life and to know that you have the power to prevent FASD in your child. Adoptive parents, we share this information, not to scare you, but to make you aware of the possible (but not guaranteed) results of a child who was exposed to alcohol in the womb.

At the very least, our hope is that you will research this topic individually so that you can become more informed.