Women that are alcoholic have a greater chance of having a baby with FAS with each pregnancy they have, so even if they don’t drink during pregnancy the child still has a risk of getting FAS. Many alcoholics do drink while pregnant as they can not control themselves and occasionally smoke when under the influence of alcohol as well using dramatic violence which causes further damage to the child, in some case even death. Organ (1996) has a view on this (see appendix 1).
Drinking during the beginning of the pregnancy when women are unaware that they are pregnant. In most cases women only find out after a few months that they are pregnant and during those few months they drink the normal amount and as the beginning of pregnancy is the time the un-born is most affected the chances of the child having FAS are already high.
The reasons behind why women decide to have just that one drink or few throughout pregnancy are different for each individual. One example for why women drink during pregnancy is due to Social influence. Tajfel looked into social influences (see appendix 2). Example, everyone from work is going for a drink, you usually go, and if you were not to on this occasion you feel as though the next day you will be socially unaccepted. Although this isn’t always the case, people do think about it in their unconscious mind and unaware of why they put their social life first. Once they are there they become tempted to have that one drink and once they do it on that one occasion they tend to have a drink when socialising, and without realising it the damage is being done to the health of the child.
Psychological factors, and peer pressure may influence adolescents' attitudes to alcohol. Personality factors, such as impulsiveness and sensation-seeking, may influence to alcoholism. Many young people think that drinking alcohol is a sign of growing up and becoming an adult it also socially creates a subjective norm in individuals that the behaviour is appropriate and desirable, McCarty describes this (1985) (see appendix 3). Teenage pregnancies occur as a result of having unprotected sex whilst drunk, being teenager go to more parties, drink more and when they do find out they are pregnant they alcohol has already got in the foetus and could have damaged the child.
Once drinking has become part of someone’s daily or weekly routine, alcohol becomes a way of coping with increasingly varied situations like boredom, depression, anxiety and frustration, as well as celebrations. Some women rely on alcohol as it affects the nervous system, and depending on the amount consumed, the effect can range from physical relaxation and a relaxation of feelings and anxiety. Individuals also receive positive reinforcement for drinking if they like the taste but more likely the feeling you get from it as described by Davidson, 1985. Kostum & Lang 1975 describes the opposite – negative reinforcement. An approach woman could use to control stress through mental imagery. When stress piles up women get frustrated and upright, when this happens they need to calm themselves down. One way in which they are able to do this is by training themselves to use mental imagery which reduces stress. Bridge et al (1988) research showed that women who used a mental imagery technique were more relaxed.
The best solutions to reduce FAS child is for women to be understand the reason behind why they drink. For those that handle not drinking for the 9 month period the news is great, but for those who find it difficult who is to say that they won’t be able to handle themselves around drink when the child is born and has FAS. If a women truly cares for the psychological problems and health of her un-born then she should be able restrict her alcohol to nothing. Doctor’s nurses and clinics should make it clear that depending on each individual even one drink can do some harm. They should encourage women to come in for regular checkups to see if their problem can be helped. They could provide counselling for those who can’t handle drink loads. Overall any positive approach to help insure that no alcohol is consumed. This is the only safe way to insure that the un-born child does not suffer because their parent was not physically and mentally able to control the amount of alcohol they drank. They need to be Internal Locus controlled, which is when they can control there health behaviour and everything else they do.
Appendix –
1 Organ (1996) has an interesting review of attitudes to alcohol use and addictions over time, and how these have changed in relation to prevailing social values.
2 Tajfel looked into social influences and his theory was that it is possible to create discrimination (in-group favouritism and out-group negative bias) even when no prejudice exists.
3 McCarty describes this (1985). Young people often have their early sexual experiences when under the influence of alcohol and a lot of teenage pregnancies occur as a result of having unprotected sex whilst drunk.
4 Kostum & Lang 1975 describes that in the case of negative reinforcement women may use alcohol to reduce the unpleasant situation as they find it reduces the level of stress that may be caused by family, friends and work.
5 Bridge et al (1988) described how imagery was used to help reduce the unpleasant emotional consequences of radiotherapy for women who have breast cancer.
Bibliography
The Guardian dated Tuesday 14th September 2004
