Zero alcohol during pregnancy to protect newborns from fetal alcohol syndrome, a constellation of 400 disorders that cause more or less serious disabilities that will accompany the unborn child for life. Problems that are “100% preventable by avoiding drinking” during pregnancy. “Alcohol during pregnancy should be completely avoided”, warns the Istituto Superiore di Sanità on the occasion of the World Day for the Fight against Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Related Disorders scheduled for Monday 9 September, “and yet a significant percentage of future mothers continue to drink even during pregnancy”. To dissuade them, the ISS is launching a social campaign with the participation of several testimonials including two young doctors and future parents. The institute is also announcing a two-year monitoring, training and prevention project of which it is the leader.
A small but still significant percentage of future mothers, 0.2%, fall into the category of chronic drinkers – the ISS reports on its website werb – while almost 6% are social drinkers: that is, they drink occasionally during meetings and outings with friends and colleagues, as highlighted by the latest data from the National Center for Addictions and Doping (CNDD) of the institute relating to the three-year period 2019-2022. The campaign ‘Zero alcohol in pregnancy’, with the scientific coordination of the CNDD, includes information and video clips (reels) aimed at “intercepting young women and more generally all those who are planning a pregnancy, to explain in a simple way that there is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy: the only possible choice to protect the child who will be born is not to drink alcohol. This applies to future mothers – the ISS specifies – but also to future fathers who are an important support”.
A message conveyed by the videos of the director of the Cndd Simona Pichini and Emanuele Scafato of the ISS Alcohol Observatory. Claudio Diaz, president of Aidefad (Italian Association of Fetal Alcohol and/or Drug Exposure Disorders), will tell his story highlighting the value of associationism to combat the stigma that makes some problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome difficult to address and share. Finally Agata Ingala and Roberto Zizzo, a couple of gynecologists who work in a public hospital in Turin, as young doctors associated with Aogoi (Association of Italian Hospital Obstetricians and Gynecologists) and future mothers and fathers will illustrate the damage alcohol does to the fetus inviting people to focus on the importance of ensuring their baby has a healthy start in life.
People with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders or FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders) “show deficits in abstract thinking, organization, planning, and learning,” the ISS describes. They have problems “remembering sequences of events, connecting cause-effect relationships,” and “deficits in expressive and receptive language, social skills, and awareness and regulation of behaviors and emotions.” A life sentence.
Alongside the social campaign, there is the scientific project ‘Maternal and child health: training of social and health workers and empowerment of young women (18-24 years) on the risks associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy’, supported by the Ministry of Health and coordinated by the Cndd and the Scientific Technical Service for Coordination and Support to Research of the ISS. It kicks off on the occasion of World Day and is carried out in collaboration with the Maternal and Neonatal Department of the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo in Trieste, the Maternal and Child Department and Urogynecological Sciences of the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome and the UOC Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the San Marco Hospital in Catania. Three objectives: “Monitor alcohol consumption during pregnancy, train workers and raise awareness of the risks”.
The project, the ISS explains, includes a laboratory section dedicated to acquiring information on alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the possible concomitant use of other psychotropic substances among women aged 18-24 through the analysis of the presence of Etg (ethylglucuronide, a specific metabolite of ethyl alcohol) in the hair of pregnant women and in the meconium of newborns of mothers in this age group. Furthermore, to verify the possible concomitant use of other psychotropic substances, a screening with hyphenated techniques will be performed on maternal hair and neonatal meconium to search for the main substances of abuse (opiates, cocaine, cannabinoids, amphetamines). The aim is then to effectively train social health workers, so as to increase the possibility of intercepting the risks of alcohol consumption during pregnancy in young women early. There will be Fad courses for workers on alcohol-related risks, with the aim of providing skills for the structuring of clinics for the early diagnosis of Fasd. In this area, the ISS – the institute emphasizes – has gained specific experience, creating in recent years distance learning courses on diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the spectrum of fetal alcohol disorders that have allowed training of approximately 30 thousand operators on the national territory.
Gynecologists, obstetricians, neonatologists, pediatricians, nurses, psychologists, psychotherapists and social workers are among the recipients of the training activities envisaged by the ISS project. On September 9, the institute informs, the first Fad course will start on the topic ‘Alcohol and substance use during pregnancy. The spectrum of fetal alcohol disorders, diagnosis and epidemiology’. Delivered on the Eduiss.it platform, it is aimed at 5 thousand social health professionals who in their daily professional activity are mainly involved in the diagnosis of alcohol-related problems. Starting from October 30, another 3 courses will be delivered on the topics of treatment, prevention and the main indications for implementing the organization of outpatient activity aimed at the diagnosis and treatment of Fasd. Each course will be intended for 5 thousand social health professionals and delivered on the Eduiss.it platform.
The awareness-raising activity is instead aimed at young students in the final classes of secondary schools (17-19 years old), through social media and in schools. Finally, posters will be created for health workers and the general population.
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