The Fifth National Biennial Conference on Adolescents and Adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Social Justice – Moving Forward is now accepting abstracts. This magnificent conference will be held on April 18 – 21, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, British Columbia. Further details on the conference are in this newsletter.
For more information click here
Alcohol During Pregnancy: How Dangerous Is It Really?
Dr. Ricki Pollycove, an OBGYN and Huffington Post Health contributor stresses the importance of avoiding alcohol during only during early pregnancy and states alcohol use after 20 weeks of pregnancy is “really not injurious”.
Huffington Post, April 6, 2011
Foetal alcohol syndrome has been ignored for too long
Bethan Morris, who has foetal alcohol syndrome, with her stepmother Briony. Read more
Kate Hudson drinking wine! Call the pregnancy police!
Pregnant actress Kate Hudson was recently spotted drinking a glass of wine and NBC’s TODAY Moms expresses their views on alcohol use during pregnancy.
Today Moms, April 5, 2011
Canadian Conference on Developmental Disabilities and Autism
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 – 9:00am – Thursday, May 19, 2011 – 5:00pm Winnipeg Location: Fort Garry Hotel, 222 Broadway, Winnipeg, MB R3C 0R3, Tel 204-942-8251 Description: With a specific focus on practical tools, behaviour, research, ethics, and best-practice, the Canadian Conference on Developmental Disabilities and Autism will leave you with practical strategies and information to allow professionals, para-professionals and decision makers to better support the individuals they serve.
Bar association president offers insight on several initiatives
The Canadian Bar Association recently adopted a resolution calling for more resources to examine FASD and provide more services with those living with the disorder in Canada.
Article, Cape Breton Post, April 12, 2011
Breaking down barriers: Manual offers tips to employers on helping workers with FASD
Narine Margaryan of the Yellowknife Association for Community Living in Canada has created a manual entitled FASD — A Practical Guide For Employers, to educate companies about FASD and ways they can accommodate employees with the disorder.
Article, Northern News Services, April 26, 2011
Substance-abuse program helps pregnant women deliver healthy babies
The Family Project residential treatment program in Virginia is helping pregnant women struggling with addiction and is addressing the increasing number of babies born with FAS.
Article, Daily Press, April 26, 2011
Pregnant? Don’t drink — it’s just not worth it
by Miriam Stoppard, Daily Mirror 5 May 2011
Despite all the research recently published that has reassured women they can have a glass of wine now and then during pregnancy, I have stood firm in my belief that it’s wrong to drink at all when carrying a baby.
Birth defects caused by drinking in pregnancy soar in Wales
The number of babies born with FASD has risen by 10% in Wales since 2010.
Article, Wales Online, May 2, 2011
Field Trial of Alcohol-Server Training for Prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Recent study from researchers in New Mexico and Oregon shows that service training for alcohol servers is effective in reducing the serving of alcohol to visibly pregnant women and prenatal alcohol exposure.
Fetal Alcohol and the Law
Video by David Boulding
The Feasibility of Screening for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Risk in Early Intervention Settings: A Pilot Study of Systems Change
Watson, Enid MDiv; Finkelstein, Norma PhD, LISCW; Gurewich, Deborah PhD; Morse, Barbara PhD
Abstract – Prenatal alcohol exposure can result in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), which can include physical and neurobehavioral disorders, including cognitive, social, language, and motor impairments that can persist throughout life. In order for children with FASD to receive the full benefit of services, recognition of their disability needs to be made earlier and more accurately than is common today. The authors assert that it is practical and feasible to screen children for FASD in EI settings.
Infants & Young Children: April/June 2011 – Volume 24 – Issue 2 – p 193–206
For further information click here
The Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Resource Store atThe Asante Centre for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Minga Marketplace is The Asante Centre’s on-line FASD Resource Store. Please visit our website for FASD Resource Books, DVDs, Posters and Awareness Gifts and Promotions. If you are looking for a particular resource and we don’t carry it, please contact us and we will do our best to obtain it for you!
Founding of the European FASD Alliance
The goals of this non-profit organization are to support member associations in various European countries in their efforts to prevent FASD and improve the quality of life of persons living with FASD. Membership will be open to all organizations involved with FASD in any country of the WHO-defined European region.
Visit the European FASD Alliance
First Mention of FASD?
365-427 A.D. Chinese poet, Yuanming Tao, known for his love of drinking, wrote a poem about the mental abilities of his five sons. Each succeeding son seemingly having more problems than the first – A possible example of FAS and parity – Although this is no mention of his wife’s drinking history, it is quite possible that being married to a self-admitted alcoholic, she herself also drank. There are several versions of his poem on his sons.
The first is called “The Five Sons”
“I am wrinkled and gray,/And old before my day:/For on five sons I look,/And not one loves a book./Ah-shu is sixteen years,/The sight of book he fears;/He is the laziest lout/You’d find the world throughout./Ah-suen has tried in vain/A little wit to gain;/He shirks the student’s stool,/At grammar he’s a fool!/Yong-twan is thirteen now,/And yet I do avow/He
can’t discriminate/The numbers six and eight!/Ton-tze is only nine,/But clearly does opine/That life, with all its cares/Consists of nuts and pears./Alas, that Fate so dour/On me her vials should pour!/What can I do but dine,/And drown my woes in wine!” Translated by Charles Budd) The second called “Blaming Sons”. “White hair covers my temples,/I am wrinkled…/And though I have five sons,/They all hate paper and brush./A-shu is eighteen:/For laziness there is none like him./A-hsuan does his best,/But really loathes the Fine Arts/Yung-tuan is thirteen,/But does not know “six” from “seven”./T’ung-tzu in his ninth year/Is only concerned with things to eat./If Heaven treats me like this,/What can I do but fill my cup?” (Translated by Arthur Waley) The third is called “My Sons”. “My temples now are covered with white hair,/My flesh and muscles firm and taut no more;/Although among my children are five sons,/Paper and pen they every one abhor./The eldest son, Ah Su, is now sixteen,/Whose laziness without a rival rests;/The second son, Ah Hsuan, almost fifteen,/Still books and learning heartily detests;/Both Yung and Tuan, although just turned thirteen./To count to six or seven do not know;/Tung Tzu, my youngest son, now nearly nine,/Only to look for nuts and pears will go./If such a destiny indeed be mine/Had I not better fill my cup with wine?” (Translated by Gladys M. Taylor & H. Y. Yang) The fourth is called “Blaming Sons”. “My temples now are covered with white hairs,/My skin is wrinkled, my muscles are slack../Although I have five sons, none of them cares/To learn to read and write in white or black./My eldest son already is twice eight,/For laziness none can be his compeers./My second son will never dedicate/Himself to fine arts, though at fifteen years./My third son is thirteen, so is my fourth one,/But they don’t know how much makes six plus seven./Nearly nine years old is my youngest son, /Amid the pears and nuts he is in heaven./Alas! If such be the decree divine,/What can I do but drain my cup of wine!” (Translated by: Xu Yuan Zhong)
4th International Conference on FASD
The webcast for the plenary sessions of this conference is now available on www.interprofessional.ubc.ca
Are Oxy Contin Babies This Decade’s Crack Babies?
By Maia Szalavitz Monday, April 11, 2011
In the late 1980s and early ’90s, it was almost impossible to avoid hearing about the plight of “crack babies” — infants born to mothers who had used crack cocaine during pregnancy. These offspring were predicted to become a generation of either super predator criminals or mentally disabled government aid recipients, unable to care for themselves.