Today, September 9 (9 of 9, for the months of pregnancy) World Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Day is celebrated, a day of international awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
Although it has been known for many years that alcohol consumption during pregnancy causes mental retardation and malformations at birth, together with other physical and psychological complications, this preventable disorder affects 1% of the population of the countries of the European Union.
In the incomprehensible figures we mentioned yesterday (between 20 and 45% of pregnant women consume alcohol, general data in the European Union) the highest percentages are in countries such as Ireland or the United Kingdom.
But wherever it is, any occasion is good to reflect on the measures to be taken to prevent as far as possible the appearance of symptoms related to fetal alcohol syndrome, or what is the same, raise awareness among women so that they do not consume alcoholic beverages if they become pregnant.
The cause of the disorders caused by fetal alcohol syndrome (SAF) is the alteration of peptides, neurotrophins, a family of proteins that favor the survival of neurons and that in the period of fetal formation can be destroyed by alcohol. The embryo or fetus reach the same breathalyzer (grams of alcohol per liter of blood) as the mother, since ethanol passes the placental barrier without difficulty.
This ethanol decreases the amount of glucose, important for fetal nutrition, and also produces an alteration in the chains of amino acids that make up the proteins that form the tissues, depending on the time of gestation different protein chains will be affected.
Alcohol is harmful at any stage of pregnancy
Depending on the stage of pregnancy, disorders and malformations in the tissues and organs that are forming at that time will originate. The risk of brain damage exists in each trimester, since the fetal brain develops throughout pregnancy.
The embryogenic period is the most vulnerable to the effects of alcoholAround the third week of pregnancy (fifth pregnancy), craniofacial malformations and severe neurological deficits can occur. In short, if consumption occurs during the first 10 weeks, cardiac, renal, genitourinary, skeletal, skin malformations, nervous system, eye and mouth disorders, embryonic tumors can occur ...
Between weeks 7 and 20 of gestation the risk is very high for brain development, the central nervous system, and malformations can occur in the corpus callosum, the most extensive bundle of nerve fibers (central commissure) in the human brain.
In the third trimester, alcohol can induce a decrease in weight and height, with a characteristic craniofacial dysmorphism such as microcephaly and neuronal and glial loss, causing neurological dysfunctions, strabismus, myopia, epicantus ... Children with SAF have a specific pattern of facial abnormalities: antimongoloid obliqueness, crushed nose, high palate, large mouth and thin lips ...
The uterine growth deficit extends to the postnatal period. Babies born with FAS may also have poor or limited psychomotor development, restlessness, hyperexcitability, and insomnia. The intellectual quotient is lower, presenting mental retardation or significant deficits with respect to children without SAF.
These children will have health and psychosocial problems throughout their childhood and adult life, losing quality of life. And although the diagnosis and early stimulation of babies with FAS in the first moments of life can reverse some of the symptoms, others will remain for life.
Although the minimum level of non-hazardous alcohol is not determined, there is scientific evidence that more time and amount of alcohol intake by the mother the picture will be more complete and the alterations more serious and less reversible.
This is the case of alcoholic mothers of long evolution, in which even the number of spontaneous abortions and births of lifeless fetuses will increase.
Prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome
Mothers with severe alcoholism problems should be diagnosed and treated early by specialists. For the rest of the mothers, prevention is simple: avoid alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
The gynecologist could include data on alcohol and other toxic substances in the woman's obstetric history, and be attentive to the data extracted from the tests in case alcohol intake is evidenced.
Training and sexual education in adolescents and people who often abuse alcohol and other drugs is effective so that not only unwanted pregnancies occur, but pregnancies with risk to the health of mother and fetus.
In short, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (SAF) is the worst disorder that affects babies who have been exposed to alcohol during the prenatal period. It is easily preventable, and World Fetal Alcoholism Day It reminds us so that more and more future moms say no to that cup.
