Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Research Paper

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a condition that affects approximately 1.9 in every 1,000 American newborns each year and is the leading cause of mental retardation in this country (Harwood, Kleinfeld 87). Although alcohol is the number one preventable cause of birth defects in the United States, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome’s prevalence is still statistically significant. The sole cause of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is the intake of alcoholic beverages by a pregnant woman. However, there are a multitude of factors that determine the way in which the fetus will be affected by the ingestion. Perhaps the most alarming part of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is that it is “completely preventable and its prevalence could be greatly reduced if physicians, educators, researchers, …show more content…
The ethanol is then absorbed by the developing fetus. According to Harwood and Kleinfeld, “alcohol causes the damage, but each child’s genes determine the effects that the child suffers” (87). This means that the types of physical and mental abnormalities that a child endures are dependent on how that child’s DNA is affected by the alcohol, which explains why there is often variation in the malformations of children with the condition. Although the exact mechanism in which alcohol causes Fetal Alcohol Syndrome still remains unclear, there are several theories that explain how alcohol can possibly damage the …show more content…
Early identification of those women who have the “potential for bearing a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome child” (Davis, Frost 108) can positively affect the prognosis because once identified, the health care team is able to begin a plan to meet the special needs of the child. Overall, the prognosis is dependent on the severity of the birth defects and central nervous system damage of the child. Within the first 6 to 12 hours of birth, neurological signs including tremulousness and anxiety seizures present themselves in babies with central nervous system disturbance (Williams, Howard, McLaughlin 88). In the most severe cases, miscarriage, stillbirth or even death within the first few weeks of life are all possible outcomes of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. On the contrary, symptoms at birth “may be so subtle...that they are unrecognizable or indistinguishable from behaviors exhibited by a baby who experiences a difficult delivery or other prenatal stressor” (Harwood, Kleinfeld 86). Based on the severity of the condition and how seriously the central nervous system has been affected, prognosis will vary
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