Pregnant Women Never Drink Alone (Part 1)

Abstract

Over the course of the next few months, the readers will be provided with a highly topical three
part series of articles on the adverse impacts of alcohol on the human foetus, and thus on the
offspring who suffer the consequences of the defects they inherit. The first task is to clarify the
confusion surrounding the nomenclature used to describe this area of research. For example,
there has been a misapprehension that the term ‘Foetal Alcohol Syndrome’ (FAS) has become
antiquated and thus been replaced by the phrase, ‘Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, (FASD).
The term FASD actually represents the overarching framework under which the different kinds
of alcohol related abnormalities are categorized. FASD should not be construed or used as a
clinical diagnosis, and from this it follows that it would be an inappropriate use of the term to
diagnose an individual with FASD