Alcohol is the most widely used drug in industrialized countries, and Spain occupies a prominent place among those with the highest consumption. It is estimated that more than a third of women consume alcohol during pregnancy, something often normalized because it is believed that a small amount does not affect the baby.
However, alcohol crosses the placental barrier in minutes. What the mother drinks, reaches the baby and can cause various disorders in the fetus. Few know, for example, that alcohol consumption in pregnancy is the most frequent non-genetic cause of mental retardation. It is impossible to establish a dose of safe alcohol consumption in pregnancy because each organism is different, and since the effects are irreversible, the most advisable is not consume a drop of alcohol.
What the mother drinks, the baby drinks
The alcohol ingested and absorbed at the level of the gastroduodenal mucosa reaches the maternal circulation rapidly (one minute) and, since the passage through the placenta is by simple diffusion, it reaches the fetal circulation almost at the same time and reaches the same levels than in the maternal That is to say, the baby is exposed to the same levels of alcohol as the mother, reaches the same breathalyzer (grams of alcohol per liter of blood) as she. The absorption is fast and complete, reaching a maximum peak at 20 or 30 minutes.
Alcohol is fixed to amniotic fluid and fetal tissues while maintaining a level of toxicity that can cause very serious effects on the baby, who obviously has an immature system to metabolize alcohol as an adult's organism does.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Alcohol produces various disorders in the fetus, of which the fetal alcohol syndrome is the most representative and serious. The incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome (SAF) is one or two every thousand newborns, although this figure is questionable, since the diagnosis of FAS often goes unnoticed. In children affected with this syndrome, we find:
Mental retardation: FAS is the most frequent cause of mental retardation (between 10% and 20%)
Facial abnormalities: Even consuming small amounts of alcohol modifies babies' faces. Children with FAS have facial bone hypoplasia, thin upper lip and poorly defined, small nose, small palpebral fissures with ptosis. Although these facial features may not be evident at birth, they become increasingly evident as the child grows older.
Hearing disorders: approximately one third have conductive deafness and another third have a sensorineural hearing loss
- Visual problems: strabismus, nystagmus, poor ocular alignment, bilateral myopia and amblyopia, among others.
Delayed language development receptive and expressive
Congenital defects
Behavioral disorders
Newborn babies with SAF may present irritability, often with hypotonia, manifest tremors and in some cases alcohol deprivation. The symptoms of deprivation usually occur at 6-12 hours of life. The most striking symptom is irritability, which is usually accompanied by tremors, convulsions, hypertonia, hearing disorders and respiratory effort.
ADHD: Associations of those affected by SAF suspect that many children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder may have ASDF (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders).
The best prevention: zero alcohol
Most pregnant women do not recognize drinking alcohol and usually when they do they usually talk about less than what they actually consume.
Anyway, experts agree that there is no minimum safe amount, and that the only sure thing is drink zero alcohol during pregnancy because every drop counts.
Even the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in the United States extend this recommendation not only to pregnant women, but to all women of childbearing age who do not use contraceptives since they drink alcohol during the first few weeks, while still The woman does not know if she is pregnant, it also poses a risk to the fetus.
