By 1992, FAS was diagnosed in four of every 10,000 births. Fetal alcohol effects (FAE) result when only a few of these symptoms are diagnosed. Between FAS and FAE over a third of a billion dollars a year is spent for treatment. These defects are among the "leading known causes of mental retardation" (United, 2). Also women who drank heavily within their last three months of pregnancy cause their newborn to have alcohol withdrawals such as "tremors, sleeping problems, inconsolable crying, and abnormal reflexes.
The second leading cause of birth defects due to substance abuse is tobacco. While smoking in the general population is declining. Approximately one third of women during their child bearing age smoke regularly. Pressinger says that cigarette use by women during pregnancy.has reported to be between twenty-two percent and thirty percent. Smoking during pregnancy can result in birth defects such as low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and even asthma. Also the number of miscarriages increases in women who smoke during pregnancy. .
The main effect of smoking during pregnancy is reduced oxygen and nutrients to the fetus which causes many adverse birth outcomes such as the placenta covering the cervix called.
3.
placenta previa, the wall of the uterus can deny oxygen to the baby also know as placental abruption, premature birth which adds in breathing complications, learning disabilities in children, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Additionally, research has shown that the children born to women who have smoked during their pregnancy have behavioral problems. The Labor Department conducted a study on over two thousand children, ages four to eleven, prenatally exposed to tobacco which concluded that learning disabilities existed in over fifty percent of those studied. Also prenatal exposure to smoke, even second hand, causes problems leading to asthma.
