Study: Pregnancy doesn't slow drinking
By A. J. Hostetler - Atlanta (AP) 4/7/95

Despite growing awareness that liquor can lead to FAS, about 1/5 of women continued to drink after learning they were pregnant, the government said.

The information is part of a study showing that the rate of babies born with health problems caused by FAS increased sixfold from 1979 through 1993.

The rate has jumped from 1 per 10,000 births in 1979 (when the government began tracking cases) to 6.7 per 10,000 births in 1993, the CDC reported Thursday. A total of 2,032 cases were reported among the 9.4 million births over the 15-year period.

A federal study released last fall found no significant change in pregnant women's drinking habits since 1988, said Louise Floyd, chief of the CDC's FAS prevention section.

"Clearly, too many babies are still being harmed by too much drinking during pregnancy," Floyd said.

Symptoms of FAS include mental retardation, abnormal facial features, CNS problems, behavioral difficulties and growth deficiencies.

Health officials do not know how much alcohol harms a fetus. Many doctors advocate no drinking at all during pregnancy, and there is evidence that even small levels of alcohol consumption can harm a fetus.

FAS was first described in the mid-1970s. Aggressive education campaigns, including warnings on liquor bottles and better training for medical students, have not done enough to combat the problem, said Patti Munter, founder and president of the National Organization on FAS.

"This is completely preventable. There are so many things we don't know the cause of. This is not one of them," she said.

Sixty-one percent of all women in the U.S. used alcohol in 1981, according to a study by the University of ND. By 1991, that figure had dropped to 58%.