As an invited guest of the Brainerd Lakes Sunrise Rotary Club yesterday, I was impressed by one of the projects the group has taken on —“Healthy Brains For Children,” (HBFC) which seeks out pregnant mothers-to-be asking them to refrain from drinking alcohol during their pregnancy.
“The purpose of Healthy Brains for Children is to increase the awareness of devastation of prenatal exposure to alcohol and to promote the healthy pratice of refraining from drinking alcohol during and immediately after each pregnancy,” according to information published by HBFC. This project educates mothers, teachers, principals, superintendents, college students and human service providers about the dangers of indulging in alcohol during a woman’s pregnancy.
It was noted that on Minnesota’s Indian reservations the rate of children with alcohol syndrome in school is estimated at 80 percent. In the general population the rate is 20 percent. That means that children born to women who have consumed alcohol during their pregnancy have moderate to severe brain damage.
The goal of the Healthy Brains for Children is to provide community-wide awareness of the problem. The long-term goal is to “lower incidents of academic and social behaviors that are a result of brain damage from prenatal exposure to alcohol, a condition called fetal alcohol spectrum disorder,” according to information from literature handed out at the meeting.
Here are a few statistics that Healthy Brains for Children points to: Over 60 percent of Minnesota women are drinking during their child-bearing years; about 50 percent of women report either an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. These two facts combined show up to 30 percent of babies are being prenatally exposed to alcohol at some level in their vulnerable first trimester before the mother realizes she is pregnant, HBFC published.
Efforts such as Healthy Brains for Children is a great cause and deserves our community’s support.
For information contact Healthy Brains for Children at (218) 829-6194.
—Keith Hansen
Comments (4)
Add commentIt's a no brainer.
Mr. Hansen, I know that I and others have suggested that you edit your writing before publishing, but actually I think you need to ask a colleague to edit your writing. I completely agree with the efforts of the Rotary Club to support Healthy Brains for Children. It's a no brainer that one can avoid fetal alcohol syndrome by avoiding alcohol and drugs during pregnancy. That theory has been proven and validated for many years.
However, the logic you presented in your opinion piece doesn't make sense. You state "It was noted that on Minnesota’s Indian reservations the rate of children with alcohol syndrome in school is estimated at 80 percent. In the general population the rate is 20 percent. That means that children born to women who have consumed alcohol during their pregnancy have moderate to severe brain damage."
What logic brought you to that conclusion? Yes, children born to women who consumed alcohol during their pregnancy usually suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, but what does that have to do with the syndrome being at 80% in Indian reservations and 20% in the general population? I think you missed some factor in this.
Your logic regarding the percent of mothers with unwanted or unplanned pregnancies compared to the percent of infants exposed to alcohol in their first trimester doesn't make sense either.
I appreciate that you are looking at issues that aren't politically influenced, but I think you can do your homework better in putting together your editorials. Your audience appreciates information that makes us think and comment, but we also deserve information that is logical and well constructed.
Thank you for listening.
Lousy math
I guess Mr. Hansen has taken 50% of the 60% of drinkers. Even an alcohol fetal syndrome person could figure that's not right. I'd wager 90% of the accidents are for the 60% of drinkers. Or maybe teetotalers are having lots of sex instead of imbibing and the accidents are theirs.
Can't just do arithmetic on anything that complicated - you'd need a lot of data and a lot of analysis to reach a conclusion. Divide by 2 is silly. Poor math skills to go with poor writing skills - great combination.
now you two are going to
hurt Keith's feelings.
Healthy Brains
It is difficult to address such a large subject in a short letter. I applaud Mr. Hansen's willingness to support this prevention effort. The difficulty of understanding the level of this silent epidemic is in the definitions of prenatal exposure to alcohol.
Most people use fetal alcohol syndrome to describe prenatal exposure to alcohol. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a medical term used to diagnose physical malformations along with intellectual deficiencies caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. This diagnosis is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to prenatal exposure to alcohol. In the studies I have done, this medical diagnosis is rarely given, even with the physical evidence present. Very few doctors will diagnose FAS. Many prenatally exposed children and adults exhibit some level of loss of potential but are not diagnosed with FAS.
Mr. Hansen used statistics quoted by HBFC in the letter. Actually, when the Fargo Forum interviewed Dr. Larry Burd, a preeminent researcher from North Dakota with over 30 years of study in this field, he stated the statistic is 40% of children born in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been prenatally exposed to alcohol.
The HBFC estimate of 80% of the Native American population relates to statements made by people who have personal experience in several schools and reservations not only in Minnesota, but in South Dakota and other states. In the law suit filed by the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the tribe estimates 1 out of 4 have the medical diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome, which is the most severe form of prenatal exposure to alcohol. We have a lot of work to do preventing this totally preventable epidemic. Thank you Mr. Hansen.