FOETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME
Mothers who drink heavily during pregnancy are prone to giving birth to babies with a group of serious health problems that are known together as foetal alcohol syndrome.
Babies born with this syndrome tend to be small with poorly developed heads, small eyes and jaws, and may suffer from birth defects including heart problems, genital malformations and limb defects. They may also be irritable, have feeding and breathing difficulties, and trouble sleeping. Sadly, these effects are not temporary and continue into adult life. Because of a deficiency in growth hormones these children may also grow up to be short in stature and have learning difficulties as a result of low IQ. Although not all babies of mothers who drink habitually will develop all the signs and problems of FAS, it is thought that most infants born to mothers drinking more than five units a day will be affected in some way, and one in three of these will have the full FAS. The syndrome probably affects one in ten babies born to women regularly drinking three units a day. The syndrome rarely develops in babies whose mothers drink less than ten units a week during pregnancy.
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