Over 1,000 GM children per year affected by drinking during pregnancy
Researchers say more support needs to be available for at-risk mums
Last updated 30th Sep 2021
Over 1,000 children are being born every year in Greater Manchester who could be at risk of lifelong conditions caused by drinking during pregnancy.
A new study by The University of Salford suggests between 600 and 1,300 children across the region could have developed Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
The University of Salford research, commissioned by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, is the first of its kind in the UK.
It found that FASD is a significant issue among the population, likely to be as common as autism, despite being rarely diagnosed.
What is FASD?
FASD is a range of lifelong disabilities caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
It includes physical, mental, behavioural and learning problems and often causes difficulties with speech, language, memory, attention, planning and decision-making.
Traditionally, many children with FASD are either misdiagnosed or do not receive a formal diagnosis, and consequently do not receive the right support.
As a consequence, they are at increased risk of having a disrupted education and coming into contact with children’s services and the criminal justice system.
The study investigated the number of primary school children affected by FASD in Greater Manchester.
Researchers found that 1.8% of children taking part had FASD (the equivalent of 619 children across Greater Manchester). This increased to 3.6% when including children who possibly had FASD (the equivalent of 1,238 children)
None of these children had previously been diagnosed with a developmental condition, and therefore were not able to access additional health and educational support.
"There has been a lot of misinformation around the risks of alcohol during pregnancy"
Professor Penny Cook from The University of Salford said: “This is the first UK study that directly finds evidence that FASD affects a significant number of children.
"In most cases, the children had not had a previous diagnosis of any disorder. All of them were struggling to learn at school. If we assume that this pattern is similar in other schools, there needs to be more investment in diagnosis and more support for affected children.
"With the right support, people with FASD can have productive and fulfilling lives. We hope that this research will shine a light on this otherwise hidden condition so that children with FASD can be supported to reach their full potential.
"Historically, there's a lot to do around the shame and the stigma because it's caused by a substance that's consumed during pregnancy.
"You have to realise, for a start, a lot of pregnancies are unplanned, so a woman might not even know she's pregnant.
"There, certainly in the past 10 years, has also been a lot of misinformation around the risks of alcohol during pregnancy.
"I think as a society we're not really prepared to accept that it's a toxic substance. It is a teratogen which is a substance that causes damage to the foetus.
"You can't blame individual women for for for drinking if they might not know they're pregnant. For another thing, drinking alcohol is pushed on us everywhere in society and in this country.
"Nobody, or very few women, would want to set out to harm an unborn child but there are a lot of children born to mothers that are suffering with alcoholism.
"I'm really keen to avoid stigmatising women for that, it's a thing that we struggle with as a society as a whole and some people find themselves sometimes in incredibly difficult circumstances.
"We're talking about depression or domestic violence and for women in those situations, that does make it incredibly difficult to avoid drinking alcohol without specialist help.
"So that's another thing that Greater Manchester has done alongside supporting us with this important study, they've been putting a lot of effort into prevention and supporting women who might find themselves in that sort of situation, as well as supporting women who are pregnant."
15,000 parents supported
Since 2019, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership has been leading the way in responding to and preventing the significant but under-recognised harms of drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
Its pioneering Alcohol Exposed Pregnancies programme has so far provided guidance to over 15,000 expectant mothers and their partners.
Of more than 1,100 parents-to-be identified as ‘at increased risk’ of an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, over 2 in 3 took up the support around drinking alcohol in pregnancy that they were subsequently offered.