Today, September 9, the World Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (SAF) Day, which affects babies who have been exposed to alcohol during the prenatal period.
It affects 1 percent of newborns in Europe and is the leading cause of mental retardation and malformations in the baby, including fetal death. It can also produce, to a lesser or greater extent, alterations in the child's development, such as physical, psychic, behavioral complications and learning disorders.
It is defined as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and describes the different symptoms that appear individually in those children whose mothers have been consuming alcoholic beverages during pregnancy, from abnormal facial features to irreversible physical and mental injuries for the rest of their lives. .
The truth is that it is not known for sure to what extent the alcohol consumed in pregnancy can affect the fetus in gestation, because in each woman it can have a different effect, therefore the recommendation is that of Do not drink a single drop of alcohol during pregnancy.
Even so, it has just been learned that 25 percent of Spanish pregnant women drink alcohol, about 35-50 percent in the Netherlands, and even more in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
To continue with the statistics, children born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome they suffer mental retardation in 90% of cases, school failure in 60% and behavior disorder, also in 60%.
There is a lot of information we have about the effects of alcohol on the fetus, and the funny thing is that it is a bad one hundred percent preventable by completely eliminating its consumption during pregnancy.
