Thousands of children with alcohol damage

Already in the womb thousands of children are confronted with their mother's alcohol consumption

08/09/2011

Every year thousands of children with alcohol damage come into the world in Germany. Because the mothers could not do without an occasional glass of beer or wine during pregnancy, the children suffer the consequences throughout their lives. Due to the alcohol consumption of pregnant women develop around 10,000 children per year already in the womb severe physical and mental damage, reports the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) in the run-up to this year's day of the alcohol-damaged child next Friday.

Despite prevention and education, many mothers are unreasonable
Doctors and health authorities regularly warn against the health risks to unborn children from drinking alcohol during pregnancy. However, many women are unimpressed by this and according to the BZgA, up to 15 percent of pregnant women consume a glass of wine, beer or schnapps at least once a month. The consequences for the unborn children are sometimes fatal. Up to 10,000 newborns are born each year in Germany with the so-called fetal alcohol syndrome or its milder variant, the fetal alcohol effect, said the BZgA in Cologne. Since even small amounts of alcohol can cause this damage, pregnant and breastfeeding women should completely abstain from alcohol, warned the director of the BZgA, Elisabeth Pott.

Health consequences are often underestimated
According to the Federal Center for Health Education, the risk of alcohol consumption for unborn children is often underestimated. In this case, according to Elisabeth Pott, women too „with increasing age and higher education to alcohol consumption during pregnancy“. Few of these women are aware of the consequences that alcohol consumption can bring for their unborn children, the BZgA director continued. Through the placenta, the ingested alcohol passes directly into the bloodstream of the unborn child, which relatively quickly reaches the same level of alcohol as the mother. However, as their organs are still in development, the children can reduce the alcohol significantly worse and threaten alcohol-related physical malformations, damage to the organs and the nervous system, warns the BZgA. The affected children are usually impaired throughout their lives in their mental and physical development. A complete renouncement of alcohol is therefore obligatory for pregnant women according to BZgA.

In order to make it easier for the pregnant women to abstain from alcohol, the men should also exercise restraint during pregnancy, warned the BZgA director, Elisabeth Pott. She recommends that her girlfriend reduce her own alcohol intake during pregnancy. This could also bring significant benefits for the future, since the drinking behavior of the child at a later age depends significantly on how parents handle alcohol. Parents should always be aware of their role model function and act accordingly, the expert admonished. (Fp)

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Picture: Doctor