Even though it’s completely preventable, there will likely be around 300 babies born in Iowa this year with what’s known as a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Stephanie Trusty, a nurse clinician at the Iowa Department of Public Health, says the disorders come in many forms but they all have the same cause: the mother drank alcohol when she was pregnant.
The list of disorders can also include learning disabilities, which can have a lifelong impact. The severity of the health issues depends on the timing and frequency of the mother’s alcohol consumption, which Trusty reminds, should not be a single drop.
People simply don’t realize how damaging alcohol can be to an unborn child, she says, as alcohol can impact a fetus at three weeks, which is before the woman may even realize she’s pregnant.
Birth defects due to alcohol are 100-percent preventable, she says, if women commit to not drinking for nine months or when they begin trying to get pregnant. There are about 40,000 babies born in Iowa each year. Studies find, about 7.5 in every 1,000 are born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. A recent survey found nearly 22-percent of Iowa adults reported binge drinking in the previous month, significantly higher than the national rate of around 17-percent.
