Blog #4

It is obvious that alcohol and drug consumption is dangerous, especially while being pregnant. From the three articles I found I learned a couple of effects that the fetus may encounter due to alcohol and drug abuse, such as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Fetal alcohol syndrome is a condition that results from exposure to alcohol during pregnancy. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a range of various deformities or impairments due to alcohol exposure to which fetal alcohol syndrome falls under. The first article I read gave me plenty of information on several drugs and alcohol that were most likely consumed by women and if the use had increased or decreased over a 10 year period. The second article provided other effects that alcohol has on pregnancy such as stillbirth, spontaneous abortion, miscarriage and infant death syndrome. And the third article explained that symptoms of depression and anxiety could lead women to consume alcohol while pregnant. These articles gave me a good overview of the effects of alcohol abuse during pregnancy but not much over drug abuse. I still have some question unanswered over my topic, for instance how does the fetus react to these harmful products consumed by the mother, what kinds of side effects do drugs like narcotics or hallucinogens cause?