Nearly 8,500 babies are born each year in Minnesota with brain damage caused by prenatal exposure. The Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (MOFAS) wants to change that.
Sept. 9, 2009, was celebrated as FASD Awareness Day. Each year on the ninth day of the ninth month, the Minnesota organization asks people to remember that during the nine months of pregnancy, a woman should not drink alcohol. It can cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).
Alcohol use during pregnancy is the leading cause of mental retardation. Awareness needs to be raised about the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. Most women of childbearing age do not know what FASD is. More than half of women of childbearing age drink without knowing whether or not they are pregnant. Unborn children who are damaged by prenatal exposure to alcohol can be born with no outward defects, but can have serious behavior and social problems later in life.
Today is our opportunity to heighten awareness about FASD and its devastating lifelong effects, and to serve as a reminder that FASD is 100 percent preventable if a woman does not drink alcohol during pregnancy. Please share this information with friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members who are women of childbearing age, that there is no safe amount, no safe time, and no safe kind of alcohol during pregnancy.
For more information on FASD and MOFAS, please go to www.mofas.org. Those at MOFAS are dedicated to the prevention and education of FASD.
FASD Awareness Day
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