Foetal Alcohol Syndrome or FAS is a common, preventable form of intellectual disability and a serious public health problem in the Western Cape. FAS affects children by slowing their physical growth and results in central nervous system abnormalities. Children are born with FAS when their mothers drink alcohol while they are pregnant. Alcohol can cause irreversible damage to the developing foetus.

• Preventing FAS
• Treatment
• Risk Factors
• How to get the service
• Useful contacts

Mothers need to be educated and informed of the consequences of FAS on their children and they need to be counselled on the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. 

Apart from physical abnormalities, children with FAS can also have neurological, behavioural, and learning problems. Programmes are currently being developed to identify and assist high-risk mothers and to diagnose children with FAS as early as possible. 

Although many of these children experience learning problems, stimulation and management programmes are being developed to assist parents and caregivers. Should a parent/caregiver or teacher be worried about a child, the child can be taken to the nearest clinic from where the child will be referred to the most appropriate service for further assessment.

Risk factors associated with FAS include:

• Any alcohol consumed by a pregnant mother: It is not safe to use any alcohol during pregnancy!
• Additional substance abuse.
• The older the pregnant mother is when she drinks, the higher the risk to the foetus.
• The effects of alcohol on the developing foetus gets worse with every consecutive pregnancy, if the mother continues to drink.
• Genetic factors: the genetic make-up of the mother and/or foetus might make them vulnerable to the effects of alcohol.
• The health and nutritional status of the mother.
• Poverty.
• Low maternal education. 
• If there is a drinking partner.