• Fetal alcohol disorders range from mild intellectual and behavioral problems to extreme disorders that lead to profound disabilities or premature death.
• FAS are not heredity: they are 100 percent preventable the sole cause is prenatal alcohol exposure.
• Of the children heavily exposed to alcohol before birth, about 40 percent are estimated to exhibit fetal alcohol disorders, with 4 percent affected by full blown fetal alcohol syndrome.
• Women who give birth to a child with FAS are 800 times more likely to give birth to subsequent children with the syndrome than are women who have never given birth to a child with the syndrome.
• Each year, there are four times as many infants born with fetal alcohol disorders as there are infants born with muscular dystrophy, spina bifida and Down syndrome combined.
• 15 out of 100 women of childbearing age do not know that drinking alcohol during pregnancy is dangerous.
• FASD affects about 40,000 newborns each year
• A survey of pediatrician reported in the journal Pediatrics revealed that only 13 percent routinely discussed the risk of drinking during pregnancy with their adolescent patients.

• According to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, 1 in 9 pregnant women binge drink during the first trimester.
• FASD are 100% incurable
• 60% of individuals with FASD find themselves in legal trouble at some point in their lives.
• There is a high prevalence of epilepsy (5.9%) in individuals with FASD compared with individuals who did not have the disorder.
• 94% of individuals heavily exposed to alcohol in the womb are diagnosed with ADHD
• It is estimated a lifetime cost for one individual with FASD is 2 million
• 50% of adults with FASD were clinically depressed

SEPTEMBER IS FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDER AWARENESS MONTH