Pregnant women should refrain from consuming alcohol

Feb 10, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
Alcohol abuse has been a chronic problem in the Guyanese society for many decades with dim prospects of solving it. Relief to this problem is not in sight due to a severe lack of skilled professionals.
Addictive substances like alcohol are abused for many reasons including societal pressures such as poverty, mental health issues such as depression, environmental factors such as peer pressures and genetic predisposition to say the least.
Its detrimental effects on the human body are many and diverse, damaging almost every organ including the liver, the pancreas, the skeleton and the brain.
Comparatively, women are much more prone to the detrimental effects of alcohol than men. Further, some women are more prone than others due to individual variability. Importantly, as a preventative measure, pregnant women are recommended to absolutely refrain from consuming alcohol, as it results in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). FAS is a phenomenon where by a pregnant woman consumes alcohol (teratogen) that then reaches the fetus through the placenta thereby causing developmental disabilities to the fetus during prenatal development.
Children born with this syndrome display facial malformations (Small head, short eye lid opening, flat mid face, smooth philtrum, under developed jaw, thin upper lips, short nose, epicanthal folds, low nasal bridge), smaller body size, less brain volume, fewer brain cells that can functions correctly, leading to learning and memory deficits and as well as behavioral deficits, thereby hindering normal progress in society. Unfortunately, there is no cure for a child born with FAS, as damage to the central nervous system (CNS) during the fetal stage cause permanent disability such as memory impairments.
Despite no cure for FAS, several interventions can be in place to help a child with FAS cope with day to day living. These include medical interventions such as treatments with psychoactive drugs, behavioral interventions such as parental strategies, developmental psychological approaches drawing on stage theorists (Erik Erikson), neurobehavioral approaches and last but not least public health and public policy approaches, encouraging prevention. Prevention is the best approach in handling FAS and it is realistically the only approach available in Guyana.
Annie Baliram

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