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FAS facts

At least 140,000 pregnant women drink frequently in the United States every year, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The more women drink, the more likely it is their babies will suffer mental retardation, learning disorders and other problems.
The study, released in April, found that the percentage of pregnant women who drank frequently increased substantially, from 0.8 percent in 1991 to 3.5 percent in 1995.
Frequent drinking is considered to be more than seven drinks a week, or more than five drinks on one occasion in a month.
The study found that the rate of moderate drinking among pregnant women also rose.
Experts predict the increase in drinking is likely to translate into a greater number of babies with fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects.

Drunk for life

Debbie Crowell worries that 7-month-old Sabrina may have fetal alcohol syndrome. Crowell, a recovering alcoholic, was forced into treatment after Sabrina's birthday. Now seven months sober, she's learning to be a good mom to her seven children.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tucsonan Debbie Crowell has graciously agreed to share her personal nightmare with Tucson Citizen readers. She hopes her story will prevent another child from being born under the influence of alcohol. Crowell is turning her life around. Read about it in Part six of the Tucson Citizen's package on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

With every sip that Debbie Crowell took from the icy can of Budweiser, the tiny baby growing inside her belly became more and more drunk.
Crowell, 29, knew that as a pregnant woman, she shouldn't drink. But she had drunk during some of her six pregnancies before this one, and each of those babies looked OK to her.
So she drank. When she got up in the morning, she'd start. When she felt as if she'd had too much beer and was about to pass out, she would use cocaine, so she could drink some more.
Sitting in her living room or on the front porch of her Ajo home, she drank until the beer was gone - about an 18-pack every day.
As Crowell got more and more drunk, so did her child, Sabrina, now 7 months old.
Doctors believe Sabrina, who started having seizures last month, may have fetal alcohol syndrome.
And recently, another of Crowell's children, 3-year-old Cory, was found to have FAS and is brain-damaged for life.
"The guilt is tremendous," said Crowell, who finally found help for her alcoholism this year.
"I did it again and again and again. Having to explain that I did that to them is going to be the hardest thing. I don't know how I'm going to tell them. It was something I could have prevented."
If Sabrina has FAS, she would be one of about 5,000 children born in the nation this year with the debilitating syndrome, the leading preventable cause of mental retardation.
In Pima County, 20 to 30 children are born each year with full-blown FAS.
Another 200 babies are born in the county each year with fetal alcohol effects (FAE).
Ironically, FAE can cause even more emotional and social problems than FAS. Its victims are smart enough to know they have problems, and there are fewer social services for them than there are for those with FAS.
The damage caused by maternal drinking is also devastating to society.
More than $330 million is spent in the United States each year caring for people with FAS.
And while numbers vary, some believe the annual cost of caring for all people damaged prenatally by alcohol is as high as $9 billion.
For the children, the future can seem almost hopeless.
"Innocent children are being devastated by alcohol," said Dr. Anna Binkiewicz, a pediatrician at University Medical Center and a nationally recognized advocate for abused and neglected children.
"We're creating a group of children who will be unemployable. They become adults who cannot function. Prenatal alcohol exposure is a major cause of destroyed human potential for an enormous group of people."
FAS was first diagnosed in the United States in 1973. We've known the devastation of maternal drinking for 25 years, yet pregnant women continue to drink.
Although 85 percent of women know drinking during pregnancy is dangerous, 1 out of 5 pregnant women drinks. And some obstetricians continue to tell their patients that drinking is all right. Experts say there is no safe level.
Exact figures on the rates of FAS and FAE have yet to be determined. Some believe as many as 2 in a thousand children are born with FAS.
In some remote Alaskan villages, FAS has been reported in 1 out of every 5 births.
Nationally, FAE is found in as many as one out of 50 children, although it is more difficult to diagnose than FAS.
Children with FAE may have as many disabilities as those with FAS, but they don't have the telltale facial features indicative of FAS.

Debbie Crowell talks about the family she misses while she stays with daughter Sabrina at Las Amigas.

Some believe the number of victims is even higher. "Prenatal alcohol exposure is the commonest cause of learning disabilities in school-age children," said Binkiewicz, "and the numbers are probably bigger than we think.
"We still don't really know the exact effect of one drink," Binkiewicz added.
Misconceptions and a lack of understanding about the effects of alcohol on the developing fetus prevent society from recognizing it.
When left in the care of birth parents struggling with a multitude of social ills, the children sometimes are lost.
Most drinking parents do not stop after the birth of a child. In some cases, when it is believed the parents cannot care for their children, Arizona's Child Protective Services intervenes.
Carol Punske, mental health specialist with CPS in Tucson, said as many as 80 percent of children in the CPS system were exposed to alcohol in the womb.
Punske said these children are difficult to place in foster or adoptive homes.
"Some of the differences in these kids, especially the FAE kids, may seem fairly subtle, like a lower IQ, impulse difficulty, language difficulty," Punske said. "But the differences are devastating. It's a lifelong hardship."
As the number of women who drink during pregnancy grows, so will the number of damaged kids.
Lean economic times and societal stress are to blame for an increase in pregnant women's drinking, said Patricia Tanner Halverson, a Tucson psychologist who has worked with FAS and FAE children for eight years.
"People are struggling harder, but they're not getting the American Dream," she said. "There's a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, a lot of depression, and it's getting buried in the bottle."
Tanner Halverson fears the numbers of children affected by maternal drinking will only grow.
"I don't think the government has a clue how serious this is, and how it's spreading like a cancer," she said. "The human suffering is enormous, and very little is being done about it."