Abigail Saeteurn

23 September 2015
CHDV 30
Taking Sides Article #1
When you see a pregnant woman drinking alcohol, its easy to go straight to judging her
as an irresponsible mother. Consuming alcohol while being pregnant has been a controversial
topic. Some women believe that drinking a little bit will not hurt the baby. Some believe that
alcohol will not harm the baby at all. Some will not risk it. Phyllida Brown and Julia Moskin take
opposing sides on this topic and explain their reasoning in their articles.
The first article by Phyllida Brown supports the stance that drinking while being pregnant
is a risk to the baby. She opens the article with a little girl named Susie who appears to have FAS
and addresses some symptoms of FAS that she has such as forgetting instructions, being
talkative, and not being able to form lasting friendships (Brown 75). Susies biological mother
had been a heavy. One of her biggest pieces of evidence she uses to support her claim is a
statistician named Helen Barr who tracked, for over the span of thirty years, babies who were
exposed to alcohol versus babies who werent when they were fetuses. Barr observed that the
less alcohol consumed during pregnancy, the less harm that was done. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum
Disorder (FASD) could be as common as affecting one in every hundred babies born in the US
(Brown 76). Some others say it affects one in three-hundred or one in five-hundred. Either way,
its still significantly more common than babies affected by Down syndrome (Brown 76). Barr
found that the alcohol exposed babies were more likely to become aggressive and impulsive
when they got older. They were also more likely to do more drugs and drink more alcohol than
their peers. Although some people say that you can spread out the alcohol and drink in small
amounts, there has been evidence that doing so still created some abnormalities in the fetus
compared to a non-alcohol exposed baby. Although not all women who drank gave birth to a
baby with FAS, there are still many who did because of the alcohol. Depending on what stage the

pregnancy is at, different parts of the fetus can be affected. A neuroscientist named John Onley
used lab rats to see the effect of alcohol on a fetus. He found that neural cells could undergo
apoptosis because of the alcohol which is why there are issues in behavior, memory, math skills,
etc. Onley says that mothers should take no chances when it comes to alcohol and their baby.
One thing I found interesting was that alcohol can cause babies to have changes in their facial
structure (Brown 76). It never really occurred to be that it was possible, but it does make entire
sense. The alcohol could be consumed while the fetus is developing his or her facial structures,
and the alcohol could mess with the formation. However, why does it mess with the lips and
eyelids and not the nose or something else? I dont get that. Theres probably some reason but
the writer didnt go into detail about it.
The second article is by Julia Moskin and she sides with the stance that drinking alcohol
while being pregnant is not a risk. Moskin brings to light how there are mothers who do not think
drinking alcohol is that big of a deal or harm because it never was before FAS was discovered
(Moskin 80). There are even doctors who tell their pregnant patients that its okay to drink a little
bit as long as its not hard liquor. Studies only address heavy drinking and dont really say
anything about moderate drinking. There was a woman named Ana Sortun who said that she and
even her doctor drank while pregnant. This makes the point that women naturally have instincts
and if their instincts say it is okay then it is okay to drink alcohol while being pregnant. Moskin
touches up on the fact that European women do drink while being pregnant and they do it often.
There isnt a huge deal for FAS in Europe so some women dont understand why its such a big
deal in the US. Studies that use mice as their test subjects arent really reliable because for
example, we dont know what two drinks are for a mouse. In addition, we cannot use humans as
test subjects because it isnt ethical. One thing I found interesting is that there were doctors who
were saying that its okay for mothers to drink while being pregnant (Moskin 80). It may just be

because I assume its a bad thing and because there is a chance that your fetus can be harmed,
any good doctor would tell you to just not risk it.
For challenge question #3, I dont think its likely that a good postnatal environment can
reverse the damage done by teratogens, such as alcohol, on a fetus. Usually the damage done by
teratogens is irreversible, such as apoptosis. Once brain cells die, they cannot be recovered.
Studies have also found that it messes with the development of facial features or cognitive
abilities that have to do with arithmetic or memory. Im not sure what a good environment could
do for facial features that have been altered because of teratogens. For arithmetic abilities, I feel
as if that could be helped if you focus your attention on this topic when trying to help the child
compensate for the damage done. However, I still do think you cannot prevent the child from
struggling a bit or having to try a lot harder than other children to understand things because their
brain just didnt develop normally. Studies have also shown that babies that were exposed to
alcohol had behavior issues later on in life. I feel as if that could be worked on by having a great
upbringing, maybe even going to therapy, or being prescribed meds.
In my opinion, pregnant women should not drink alcohol. Yes, I am aware that there have
been cases were pregnant women do drink and their baby comes out perfectly normal and
unharmed. However, there have been way too many cases that show abnormalities. The adverse
effects can even be things that most people wouldnt even think are consequences from being
exposed to alcohol. Examples would be aggression, difficulty learning, difficulty with memory,
and facial features such as a thin upper lip, etc. These are characteristics of people that you dont
first think the cause is oh thats probably because their mother drank alcohol while being
pregnant. I feel like if someone was aggressive, people would just reason it out to be in their
nature and that its just the kind of person they are. For difficulty learning or memory issues,
people would just reason it out to be that kid is just not very bright and its probably genetics

or something along the lines of that. There are probably a lot of kids with symptoms of FAS but
they are minor and not as major as cases such as mental retardation or heart defects such as a
hole in the heart. I feel like if any mother wanted the very best for her baby, she would just not
risk the chances of harming the baby. Because there have been cases that prove alcohol does
have effects, theres a chance that it could happen to your baby. Any chance isnt worth taking
when it comes to your babys life. I think that mothers should just tough it out and stay away
from alcohol for the safety of their baby. Being a mother comes with a lot of sacrifices, alcohol
should be one of them once they find out they are pregnant to when they give birth (or when they
stop breastfeeding).