It would take just one small change in behavior through education that would save millions of people from a life of suffering. In simple terms – when a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy it can cause permanent brain damage. It can be the occasion drink like that one glass of wine with dinner every night and it can be those crazy binges just for fun because one or two nights doesn’t hurt right? Wrong. It all hurts. It hurts the growing baby forever.
FASD is a lifelong disability. It’s a spectrum disorder and no one person is the same. The effects to the brain and damage caused by drinking alcohol are different for everyone. It effects challenges in their daily living, physical health, learning, memory, attention, communication, emotional regulation, and social skills. The average lifespan for a person with FASD is 34! FASD is now recognized as one of the leading known causes of developmental disability in the western world. Compared with other common disabilities, at an estimated prevalence of 4% of the population sufferers from this invisible disability. It exceeds even the most commonly know disabilities of our time. • 2.5 times more common than Autism Spectrum Disorder (1.52%26) • 19 times more common than Cerebral Palsy (0.21%27) • 28 times more common than Down Syndrome (0.14%28) • 40 times more common than Tourette’s Syndrome (0.10%29) At a global scale almost 1% (77 million) of the world population is estimated to have FASD with some countries being as high as 11% of the population. (Africa)
In a 2019, CDC researchers found that about 1 in 9 pregnant women reported drinking alcohol. The challenge goes that the only person that knows for sure is the birth mother. It can be very hard to diagnose and let’s be honest. What women wants to admit that her behaviors caused harm to her child. Most women don’t even know that alcohol can cause long term damage to their growing child. Children on the FASD spectrum get misdiagnosed and undiagnosed every day. Below are just a few underlying conditions that my sons have that could easily have been written off as conditions on their own with no FASD diagnosis. They have them all. • ADHD • Sensory Disorder • Speech and language disorder • Learning Disabilities • ODD • Heart Defects • Memory impairment • Anxiety and stress disorder These are all common diagnosis that go along with FASD. Part of the spectrum they experience every day of their life and as an outsider you may never know. You can’t see it on their face. They don’t use a wheelchair, crutch or outside support systems. My favourite lines from teachers and parents almost every day. “Oh it’s just a boy thing – they will grow out of it.”
62 AWARENOW / THE STAND UP EDITION
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