Teen to Teen Talk
Effects of Alcohol on a Fetus
by Elizabeth Horner 

Every family has traditions--- the moments played on repeat where you go through the same actions, have almost the same conversations over and over again. For my mother and me, we don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner to roll around in order to partake in a well-established and beloved family tradition; any meal will do. And it goes like this: I will get soda, while Mom takes up a glass of water. 

Now, I don’t care if it’s got ice and a lemon stuck in it, water is something for taking a shower, going a couple of laps in the pool, or loading into a water gun and aiming at my friends with it --- it’s not for drinking! She, however, disagrees, and will swiftly inform me after I have taken my first sip of--- ah--- refreshing soda, that all I am accomplishing is the destruction of my brain cells. And hard as it is for me to admit it, a part of me recognizes that she is right. 

What we eat and drink does have a huge impact on our ability to function. I’m sure that many of us have experienced a sugar high, and the subsequent sugar collapse. And there are many substances out there with a much more potent effect. But the risks become even worse when our eating or drinking directly impacts someone else. Pregnant women are asked to watch things like their caffeine and vitamin intake, to keep up a steady diet of fruits and vegetables, but even more important is their doctor’s advice to abstain from alcohol. 

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (US DHHS), for the developing fetus, alcohol ingested at any time during pregnancy could result in developmental problems … such as “mental retardation, learning disabilities, attention deficits, hyperactivity, problems with impulse control, language, memory, and social skills”. Almost all parts of the babies’ bodies can be impacted by alcohol exposure since it journeys, undiluted, through the placenta to mix with their blood and, and once affected, this could have a lifelong effect on a child. 

“Alcohol can trigger cell deaths in many ways, causing different parts of the fetus to develop abnormally.  Alcohol can disrupt the way nerve cells develop, travel to form different parts of the brain, and function.  By constricting the blood vessels, alcohol interferes with blood flow in the placenta, which hinders the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus”, reads the US DHHS – Samhsa publication. It is costing the US around $6 billion in medical costs to care for approximately 40,000 babies whose normal development were disrupted by alcohol. 

To me, pregnancy is a scary process to go through, especially when one is young. The responsibility of caring for that new life truly starts from the moment of conception. 

If any girl becomes pregnant, it is important that she seeks pre-natal care and abstain from alcohol. The consequences of “Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder”, or “FASD”, are completely avoidable, but it is up to the mothers to make choices for their babies who are, as of yet, incapable of making this future-changing decision for themselves. There is no one manual that will have all the magic answers on how to be a good parent, but there are certain steps that can be taken to give yourself a good start--- and one of the best ones you can take early on, both for your own health, and for your child --- is to refrain from alcoholic drinks. As my mother says, “You are only destroying brain cells”, except this time, they might not be your own.