Alcoholism and Pregnancy
Alcoholism increases tolerance on alcohol thus affecting an individual’s ability to control his or her alcoholic consumption. Studies have shown that a large cross-section of women is today consumers of alcohol. This affects most professional ladies more than ordinary women. Their brain is more prone to damage than that of men; for instance, the case of memory loss. The new generation women are likely to suffer from serious medical consequences such as brain, liver, and heart anomalies. According to Russell (2005), alcoholism has very adverse effects ranging from mental to psychiatric disorders, and even suicide. Children born of alcohol consuming mothers have demonstrated delayed development. These children, at some later stages of life, demonstrate behavioral change. Ethanol affects the fetus and causes all these effects.
Chaff (2010) points out that alcoholism begins with the consumer taking allowable amounts and continue until she exceeds the required limits. It leads them to alcohol dependence and the become addicts. Most consumers begin by drinking substantial amount but gradually become unable to control their consumption. Like men, a pregnant mother starts to show some withdrawal symptoms. She can complain of sweating, shaking and anxiety. To her the only way to deal with these conditions is by resulting to drinking. Eventually, it turns out she has adapted a chronic disease. However, it is not a weakness or even lack of willpower; like other known diseases, their course can be predicted and the situation arrested in time. Main factors that contribute to alcoholism include social environment, impaired mental health, stress, age, family history as well as the ethnic group (Chasnoff, 2010).
High repetitive doses of ethanol can cause high chances of a child developing fetal alcoholic syndrome. Mostly, this condition manifests by major behavioral anomalies as well as mental and intellectual deficiencies. Alcohol abuse in pregnant women is highly discouraged because of its disastrous effects on both the mother and her fetus. Alcoholism especially in pregnancy can cause both psychiatric and medical problems that because of the cumulative toxic effects. Alcoholism mostly affects women because their bodies are too sensitive; they suffer cerebral, physical and mental effects easily. To all, including pregnant women, long term abuse of alcohol may cause liver cirrhosis. Other physical symptoms may include pancreatitis, epilepsy, alcoholic dementia heart diseases, and nutritional deficiencies. Additional to this, alcohol predisposes the victims to the risk of cardiovascular diseases, central nervous and peripheral nervous systems degeneration as well as general skeletal fragility. Other immunologic defects are also likely to occur.
For women, the risk is much high. They develop long-term complications as a result of alcohol consumption. In addition, Russell (2007) argues that women are at a higher risk of mortality rate from alcoholism than men. These include brain, liver and heart damage. Current research also suggests that alcoholic women are at a high risk of developing breast cancer. Some scholars continue to argue that excessive use of alcohol decreases the ovarian mass, causes irregular menstrual cycles and to a large extent may cause early menopause. Studies have also indicated that high exposure to heavy drinking in pregnant women may cause fetal alcohol syndrome. During pregnancy, moderate consumption also affects developmental stages of the embryo; when the fetus becomes exposed to ethanol, its development suffers. Alcohol drinking has also been cited as a major contributor of spontaneous abortions with the risk being highest in the first trimester of pregnancy as Russell (2005) has shown. The addicts have a likelihood of suffering from infertility.
It is also worth mentioning that women who take alcohol put the fetus at a risk of malformation; this applies even to moderate alcohol pregnant women. The fetus may also die. Scientists have also demonstrated that high alcohol consumption during pregnancy cause growth retardation of children born. On the same note, heavily drinking mothers are likely to deliver low birth weight babies. These children may also develop neural tube defects, a scenario that medical experts have termed as hazardous. It is attributed to parental exposure to ethanol. Experts use terms such as atopic dermatitis to explain a condition that results from parents who have allergic diseases and are alcoholic addicts. In such a case, the infants of such mothers are always at risk of contacting the defect.
When it comes to behavioral changes, Psychologists argue that alcohol increases the risk factor for Deficiency Hyperactivity Disorder. Research reported high case in alcohol consumption during the early stages of pregnancy. This disorder affects the cerebral cortex of the infant as Comben (2009) has shown. He has also asserted that excessive consumption of alcohol during pregnancy can affect the intellectual ability of the infant. Besides, women taking excessive amounts of alcohol expose their developing embryos to teratogenic effects of alcohol. These include: increased oxidative stress, disturbed glucose and proteins as well as DNA metabolism, and effects on gene expression as a result of severe mechanism.
Inclusion, it has emerged that during pregnancy maternal alcohol ingestion has demonstrated that it can have deleterious effects on CNS and other organs of the developing embryo. This will also affect the fetus. However, it will depend on the dose, the duration and the development stage of the embryo at the time of exposure. From the above discussion, one thing becomes evident: alcohol consumption during pregnancy should be minimized if not avoided. Currently, it may be difficult to state the minimal dose that, when consumed, will not affect the developing embryo. In order to arrest this worrying trend, it is advisable to emphasize on education intervention. It should start right from school during adolescence stage. Most importantly, the young adults should try to desist from alcoholic addiction for the sake of their health and that of their fetuses. Affected addicts should seek medical attention and psychological support.
References
Chasnoff, I. (2010). The mystery of risk : drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, . Chicago: NTI Upstream.
Comben, I. (2009.). Alcohol, other drugs and pregnancy. West Melbourne: Vic. : Australian Drug Foundation.
Russell, E. ( 2005). Alcohol and pregnancy : a mother's responsible disturbance. Burleigh: Qld : Zeus Publications.
Russell, E. (2007). Alcohol and Pregnancy: No Blame no Shame. Burleigh: Zeus Publications.
