The cost of alcohol and pregnancy

Kath Meade adopted a baby whose birth mother had drunk heavily in pregnancy. She talks of the pain and what needs to be done.

Transcript

00:00Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, I'd never heard of it before we became foster carers,

00:06and I was really surprised at the number of people whose lives it impacts, and I think

00:17we need to remember that alcohol consumed at any time during the pregnancy has the possibility

00:26of creating a lifelong problem for the individual,

00:35and I think that we need to support women when they are pregnant, that if they're using

00:44alcohol as some sort of crutch, or they're self-medicating, that we need to

00:53provide supports for them, and we need to take the blame out because so many

00:57women out there live their lives and have a drink, you know, have a wine with dinner,

01:03and will do that on a semi-regular basis, and that's okay. The only problem is that a lot of

01:10women don't find out they're pregnant until they're, you know, weeks along, and unfortunately

01:18that's already long enough to cause damage, and if that's happened then

01:24we need to then provide those women and those families with support.