Drinking while pregnant causes irreversible damage, condemning children to an inferior lifestyle
Suzan Chala
South Africa has the highest figures of foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in the world. According to the chief executive officer of the Foundation for Alcohol Relation Research, Professor Denis Viljoen: “One in 20 children in the Western Cape has FAS.”
FAS is a pattern of physical and mental birth defects caused by the abuse of alcohol by mothers during pregnancy. It is a non-curable condition that causes irreversible physical, mental and emotional damage.
FAS is totally preventable by abstaining from drinking during pregnancy. According to Viljoen , there is no safe dose of alcohol during a pregnancy. “Factors such as nutrition, smoking and education contribute to FAS,” he says.
Children with FAS have severe learning difficulties and are slow to start talking, they have behavioural problems, including hyperactivity, poor concentration spans and difficulty in socialising.
“The syndrome affects their schooling, their societal behavior and their chances of employment,” says Viljoen.
“The tragedy of FAS is that it condemns people to an inferior lifestyle even before they are born. They can never reach their biological potential.”
There is no specific test for FAS. It can only be diagnosed by checking the drinking history of the mother and symptoms that include low IQ levels, poor development of facial features, heart defects, sight and hearing problems and impairment of the immune system.
Earlier this year the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Cape, Frank Kahn, identified alcohol abuse as one of the major problems in South Africa and called on the government to be “as aggressive about alcohol advertising as they are about cigarette advertising”.
The director of the mental health and substance abuse directorate, Professor Melvyn Freeman, says the government has been training health workers in all provinces about FAS for two years. He says there has been a national campaign in the form of pamphlets, posters and videos at the clinics to inform and educate the public about it.
He does not know of any law preventing pregnant mothers from drinking alcohol, but the directorate is looking into counter-advertising alcohol with the slogan “Don’t drink when you are pregnant”.
He says the advertisers might have to have a health warning for alcohol like for cigarettes.
One of the children affected by alcohol abuse is Josephine Goodgall (not her real name) of Pimville. Both her parents are alcohol abusers and blame each other for their failures in life.
Josephine is 18 years old and is in grade eight. She studies hard but has never passed her grades with more than an average mark. She repeated grade seven twice and was condoned to grade eight in 1998.
She has no birth certificate and her mother refuses to help her get an identity book without being paid for her help.
“She’ll spend all the money on alcohol,” says Josephine, who is supported by her two boyfriends.
Josephine has to provide food and clothing for her 11-month-old brother and her two-month-old sister. Her two other brothers, aged 16 and 14, work at the Soweto Country Club golf course as caddies. They have also stopped giving money to their mother because she uses it all on alcohol.
Josephine has not been diagnosed with FAS and there is no law to protect her, so she, her brothers and sister and other unborn children will be limited to an average if not low lifestyle because of their mother’s alcohol abuse.