Alcohol and Pregnancy

• No amount of alcohol use is known to be safe for a developing baby before birth.
• Alcohol causes more damage to the developing fetus than any other substance, including marijuana, heroin, and cocaine
• About half of the pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned.
• A woman may not realize she is pregnant up to 4 to 6 weeks in pregnancy and expose her baby to alcohol before she knows she is pregnant.
• Exposure to alcohol from all types of beverages, including beer and wine, poses a risk to developing babies at every stage of pregnancy.
• A developing baby is exposed to the same concentration of alcohol as the mother during pregnancy yet doesn’t have the filter of mature kidneys.
• FASDs are completely preventable if a developing baby is not exposed to alcohol before birth.
• Each year more than 40,000 babies are born with FASDs that can result in birth defects, intellectual or learning disabilities, behavior problem, and trouble learning life skills.
• Up to 1 in 20 school children may have an FASD.
• FASD related difficulties last a lifetime.
• The estimated lifetime cost for an individual with FASD is over two million dollars.

(Institute of Medicine).