The Guardian (UK) - Smoking and drinking in pregnancy 'harms 10,000 babies in UK each year'
Britain's top children's doctor has said that more than 10,000 babies each year suffer serious harm, including death, because their mothers drank alcohol, smoked, over-ate, or took drugs during pregnancy.
Irish Medical Times (Ireland) - Four-fifths of women drank alcohol ‘close to conception’
A total of 81 per cent of women reported alcohol consumption during the peri-conceptual period, the prevalence study of alcohol exposure in pregnancy at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital has shown.
Irish Independent (Ireland) - 145 babies had alcohol withdrawal symptoms
AT least 145 babies were born in the country's main maternity hospitals in just three years suffering from alcohol withdrawal, new figures reveal.
Lethbridge Herald (Canada) - Christmas tree carries message to avoid FASD
Almost every day in Alberta, a baby is born who will be diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder. Approximately 23,000 Albertans and 2,200 in the southern region have the disorder FASD, which encompasses a wide range of brain injuries causing mental, physical and learning disabilities as a result of mothers consuming alcohol or drugs while pregnant.
Parkersburg News (USA) - FAS rates on the rise in West Virginia
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome rates are on the rise in West Virginia. A 2009 study by the West Virginia Perinatal Partners found one out of five West Virginia babies are exposed to drugs or alcohol before they are born.
Vancouver Sun (Canada) - Screen all prison inmates for fetal-alcohol syndrome, doctor urges
A Winnipeg doctor says he hopes all inmates will be screened for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder as a matter of course within the next five years, just in time for an expected spike in the country's prison population.
HealthCanal.com (Australia) - No room in the womb for alcohol
A flagship Indigenous health care initiative in Western Australia's remote Fitzroy Valley has received vital funding that will allow it to progress to a new phase.
The West Australian (Australia) - Push for warning labels on alcohol
Federal and State health ministers are being urged to support health warning labels on alcohol, including the immediate introduction of advice for pregnant women.
The Northern Echo (UK) - Mothers-to-be in alcohol warning
A NORTH-EAST consultant has voiced fears that women are drinking too much in pregnancy – resulting in a huge hidden population of damaged children. It follows a survey of the drinking habits of mums-to-be which suggests hundreds of babies born every year in the region suffer from Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).
CBC.ca (Canada) - Baby poop study tracks alcohol use
Hospital researchers on P.E.I. have been collecting and studying human meconium – the first stool – of every newborn Islander.
Waterloo Record - Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder requires new approach
Often all people see in a child with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is their bad behaviour. “The behaviours make it difficult to deal with the kid in many cases,” said Allan Mountford, who teaches in a special program that helps troubled teenagers transition to high school.
The Fix - Alcoholism's Gender Gap is Closing Fast
As women rapidly chase down men in the drinking stakes, one Harvard professor says alcoholism progresses faster in females—and that all-women treatment groups are vital.
MATERIALS and EVENTS
The National Health Service Grampian (in Scotland) released a new booklet called Pregnancy, Parenting and Alcohol.
Eufasd.org - Second European Conference on FASD
Pre-Announcement: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Clinical and Biochemical Diagnosis, Screening and Follow-up.
RESEARCH
Coombe.ir - Drinking during pregnancy increases the risk of premature birth
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight. But there are onflicting reports about how much alcohol, if any, it is safe for a pregnant woman to drink. New research, carried out in the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital looked at the amount of alcohol women drank during their early pregnancy and showed the effect this had on their babies.
Alcohol and Alcoholism - Universal Prevention is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in Northern Cape, South Africa: A Multicentre Before–After Study
This, the first prevention study using FASD outcomes, suggests that universal prevention might reduce FASD by ∼30% and have population-level effects. This supports intensifying universal interventions where knowledge of harms of maternal drinking is low. These efforts need to be accompanied by alcohol-dependence treatment to lower more severe FASD forms.
Modulation by the GABAB receptor siRNA of ethanol-mediated PKA-α, CaMKII, and p-CREB intracellular signaling in prenatal rat hippocampal neurons
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a developmental neuropathology resulting from in utero exposure to ethanol; many of ethanol's effects are likely to be mediated by the neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
Meconium Testing for Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters: A 2011 Status Report
The Canadian Association of Pediatric Health Centres, working in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada has recently published a toolkit to guide screening for identification of risk of FAS/FASD.
