Fetal Alcohol Syndrome essays

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome essays Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a series of mental and physical birth defects The manifestations of these defects are associated with a mothers ingestion of alcohol during pregnancy. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome annually affects between 1.3 and 2.2 children per 1,000 live births in North America. Researchers estimate that cases of Alcohol-Related Birth Defects (ARBD) exceed those of FAS by a ratio of 2:1 to 3:1. This would indicate that women in the U.S. annually give birth to between 16,548 and 22,064 children exhibiting the effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol. Alcohol use or abuse by the pregnant woman subjects her to the same range of risks that alcohol does in the general population. However, it poses extreme and unique risks to the fetus and is associated with FAS. Timing of alcohol use during pregnancy is also of importance. Alcohol use during the second trimester is more damaging than use in the third trimester. Alcohol ingested by a pregnant woman easily passes across the placental barrier to the fetus. Because of this, drinking alcohol can adversely affect the development of the baby. Research of the Effects of parental exposure to alcohol. Research on the extent and effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol is sometimes contradictory. It is done much the same way as any other medical research conducted under non-experimental conditions. It is sometimes difficult to find appropriate candidates for study. Most hospitals lack protocols for identifying pregnant women who use alcohol and/or other drugs; in addition, such protocols have limited use because people often do not admit such behavior. Toxicology assessments can result in false positives or fail to reveal alcohol or other drug uses because those substances have metabolized. Researchers frequently fail to base their prevalence estimates on samples representative of the general population. Researchers often have trouble establishing a matched control group...