Every hour a baby is born with a brain damaged by alcohol, it's an avoidable cost of 9 billion euros / year for France!
A forgotten population estimated at 585,000 people in France. How to give a voice to those who are unable to speak following alcohol abuse in the womb of their mothers?
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the leading cause of non-genetic mental retardation and, especially, of social maladjustment.
Each year, 8,500 babies are born with a brain damaged for life by alcohol during pregnancy.
Alcohol is a very potent teratogen toxic which can cause malformations of all organs and especially the brain.
It is more dangerous for the fetus than tobacco, cannabis, cocaine and heroin.
Yet few professionals know the real consequences of this scourge.
Because of individual genetic characteristics, alcohol is potentially dangerous even in moderate consumption.
Most affected individuals are not diagnosed because to talk about alcohol is taboo for a woman, for asking a woman if she drinks alcohol interferes with the caregivers, and yet, many of the women would have liked that this issue be addressed .
Few doctors think of this case facing a growth retardation, a small brain, unexplained malformations (heart, bone, kidney, eyes, cleft palate ...), a school delay, behavioral and attentional disorders …
And so, these children do not have specific early support that could avoid a lot of hassle.
It's very often at school age that brain damage expresses through learning disorders
These children present troubles of attention, memory, calculation, reading, hyperactivity, impulsivity, difficulties to organize and plan, understanding the consequences of their actions.
When they grow up they have judgment difficulties and become more easily manipulated and addicts.
Unable to understand the rules of our society, they slide into delinquency (15% of teens in jail in canada are recognized as suffering FASD and begin to benefit from a special treatment).
Unaware of the consequences of their actions, prison is of no use to them and they often reoffend when at liberty.
The cost (health, social, educational , and justice services) of secondary disabilities is estimated lifetime to 1.3 million per individual and reached 9 billion euros per year for France.
Together we can avoid this plague.
To do this:
*A clear message is the only valid to take no risk for the baby, "if you are pregnant or if you want to be, do not take alcohol during pregnancy and lactation."
*This message must be conveyed by all and with even stronger determination by health professionals.
*For women struggling with alcohol, our society needs to stop stigmatising but help her with the guilt that forces her to hide from a "shameful disease."
*We must, as with any disease, be supportive and non-judgmental to help seek care for her and her child.
* And so, with the confidence gained, we can facilitate links between the social, health, national education and justice services and improve their efficiency.
*We need to recognize quickly "at-risk" children to offer them an early support which will often avoid social marginalisation.
*Because it is not uncommon to find in the same family: a baby carrying defects, a cadet with learning difficulties an older having trouble with the justice.For these families it is necessary to provide, in the long term, a coherent and comprehensive response to avoid refiering to fate to explain this transgenerational transmission.
What a few people dare to say about the real consequences of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, you will know from the mouths of the world's best experts and of the affected families who will have the courage to testify in Paris on the 30th and 31st of May 2013. In solidarity with the thousands of people affected and for this preventable scourge to stop: you are all cordially invited to come and listen to them at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris
To register :http://www.saffrance.com/2013/01/3ecolloque/
Collectively yours
Dr Denis Lamblin
Pediatrician
President of SAFFrance
Translator Joelle Balanche SAF France