- Agency/Organization name
- Contact person name
- Date of training request
- Time and length of training request
- Who will be attending the training (i.e. foster parents, special education students, etc…)
- How many people will be attending
- What you would like the presentation to cover (i.e. FASD 101, diagnosis, secondary issues, etc…)
MOFAS charges a fee of $150/hour to do trainings, plus mileage of .55 per mile for round trips of 100 miles or more. However, if your agency cannot afford the set fee, please still contact us. There are a certain amount of trainings we do throughout the year that are free, and we are willing to work within your budget. Once you have contacted MOFAS with your request, we will get back to you to confirm your information. Because we have limited staff and resources, we are unable to personally accept all the training requests we receive. We do however have a Speakers Bureau who assists with training on FASD and one of those speakers may be asked to do your training.
3. What is FASD?
This stands for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and is an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. These effects may include physical, mental, behavioral, and/or learning disabilities with possible lifelong implications. There are many terms under the FASD umbrella, including these medical diagnoses:
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
- Alcohol Related Neuro-developmental Disorders (ARND)
- Alcohol Related Birth Defects (ARBD)
- Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS)
FASD is a lifetime disability that affects each child differently. Some children with an FASD have specific facial features and tend to be smaller in height and weight. They often have brain injury that never goes away. This means both the child’s thought process and his behavior may be very different than a child who was not exposed to alcohol before birth. The brain damage is the most challenging part of this disability.
4. What causes Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)?
The only cause of FASD is alcohol use during pregnancy. There is no known safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy. There is also no safe time to drink alcohol during pregnancy. Alcohol can affect the baby every trimester of pregnancy:
Drinking alcohol up to the 13th week of pregnancy can cause:
- severe brain damage;
- problems with the heart, liver and kidneys;
- miscarriage;
- facial malformations.
Drinking alcohol between weeks 14 and 26 can cause:
- brain damage;
- miscarriage;
- damaged muscles, skin, teeth, glands and bones.
Drinking alcohol between weeks 27 and 40 can cause:
- brain and lung damage;
- low birth weight;
- early labor and delivery.
5. Is there a safe amount of alcohol to drink while I am pregnant? Is there a safe time to drink alcohol while I am pregnant?
No. There is no safe amount of alcohol that a woman can consume during pregnancy. Because every woman metabolizes alcohol differently, even the smallest amount of alcohol could harm the developing baby. Because of that risk, there is never a safe time to drink alcohol during pregnancy. From the U.S. Surgeon General’s News Release on February 21, 2005:
“We do not know what, if any, amount of alcohol is safe. But we do know that the risk of a baby being born with any of the fetal alcohol spectrum disorders increases with the amount of alcohol a pregnant woman drinks, as does the likely severity of the condition. And when a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, so does her baby. Therefore, it’s in the child’s best interest for a pregnant woman to simply not drink alcohol”.
In addition, studies indicate that a baby could be affected by alcohol consumption within the earliest weeks after conception, even before a woman knows that she is pregnant. For that reason, the U.S. Surgeon General is recommending that women who may become pregnant also abstain from alcohol.
6. Can an FASD be passed along through breast milk?
Alcohol in breast milk is not linked to FASD. However, when a woman who is breastfeeding drinks alcohol, some of that alcohol does enter her breast milk. Research shows that alcohol in the milk can harm a child’s development, sleep, and learning. For this reason, breastfeeding women should be very cautious about drinking alcohol, if they choose to drink at all. According to the new 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans published by the USDA, a mother may consume a single alcoholic drink if she then waits a least 4 hours before breastfeeding.
7. Can a father cause FASD?
No. FASD is only caused when a woman drinks alcohol when she is pregnant. However, a father can be supportive of the mother by encouraging her not to drink alcohol while she is pregnant and by abstaining from alcohol himself as a show of support for the mother.
8. Is there a cure for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)?
Unfortunately, FASD cannot be cured. The brain damage that occurs to an unborn baby when a pregnant woman drinks alcohol cannot be changed or reversed. However, people with an FASD can function very well in life when given the right supports. Supports include a stable and loving home or a job coach and placement program.
What we cannot change about FASD are called Primary disabilities and include:
- Facial features associated with FAS;
- Height and weight (small in stature);
- Brain damage (learning disabilities, memory problems, poor impulse control).
Secondary characteristics are the ones that can be prevented when we deal with the Primary disability properly. Secondary characteristics can include:
- Mental health problems;
- Disruptive school experience;
- Trouble with the law;
- Confinement (includes jail, mental health and chemical dependency treatment);
- Inappropriate sexual behavior;
- Alcohol/drug problems;
- Dependant living;
- Employment problems.
9. How do you know if you/your child has an FASD?
These are some things to look for if you suspect someone you know may be affected:
Infants: Low birth weight; sensitivity to light, noise and touch; irritability; unable to suck effectively; slow to develop; ear infections; poor sleep/wake cycles.
Toddlers: Poor memory; hyperactivity; no fear; no sense of boundaries; need for lots of physical contact.
School-Age Children: Easily distracted; short attention span; poor coordination; trouble with large and fine motor skills; need lots of one-on-one attention.
Older Children: Low self-esteem; trouble keeping up in school; poor impulse control; difficulty with public versus private environments; must be reminded of concepts on a daily basis.
These signs may also be present in children without an FASD, however you will notice that “typical” parenting will not result in changes in behavior for children prenatally exposed to alcohol.
10. If a woman has an FASD, will her children have it, too? Is FASD hereditary?
No. FASD cannot be “passed on” from a mother to a child like having blue eyes can be passed on. The only way for women with an FASD to have a child with an FASD is for that woman to drink alcohol when she is pregnant. Also, just because a woman has one child with an FASD does not mean she will have another with an FASD. As long as a pregnant woman does not drink alcohol, her child will not be born with FASD.
11. How many people have FASD?
Here in MN, about 8500 babies are born every year with prenatal alcohol exposure. Nationally, FASD affects about one in every 100 live births. That’s more than Autism and Down Syndrome combined(1).
1. FASD Center for Excellence at http://fasdcenter.samhsa.gov/documents/WYNK_Numbers.pdf (PDF)
12. I drank alcohol before I knew I was pregnant. Will my baby have an FASD?
The best thing to do when you find out you are pregnant is to stop drinking alcohol. The sooner a woman stops drinking alcohol during pregnancy, the better birth outcome she will have. Some unborn babies are not seemingly affected by their mother drinking alcohol, while others are affected a great deal. Many women do not know they are pregnant for the first couple of months of their pregnancy, and during that time (weeks 3 to 8 of fetus development) the brain and many major organs are developing. That is why the safest thing is to not drink any alcohol during pregnancy, if you are planning on becoming pregnant or are having unprotected sex.
