FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME; PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS
The purpose of this paper is to explore the existing research on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome for studies which have examined how giving birth to an FAS child affects mothers' psychological status. So that this review of the existing research may be fully understood, it is necessary to provide a brief description of the syndrome. In this regard, Streissguth, Landesman-Dwyer, Martin and Smith (l980) have noted that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome refers to a cluster of congenital defects observed in children of alcohol abusing mothers. Most commonly, these defects include: flattened noses, widely separated eyes, tiny heads, low birth weights, and varying degrees of mental retardation.
One of the first things that can be noticed in any attempt to explore the literature on the psychological ramifications of giving birth to an FAS child is the paucity of such studies. One reason for this paucity is that the syndrome has only recently been recognized. This fact is addressed by the NIAAA Director of scientific affairs in an article he wrote for Alcohol Health and Research World. Specifically, the Director states that:
In l968, birth defects in l27 children of alcoholic
parents were reported in a medical journal published in France. Not until l973, however, was a specific pattern of neonatal defects described and given a name---fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Only three scientific 2.
or clinical papers on this subject were published that year, worldwide (NIAAA Director, l985, p.4)
A second reason for the dearth of studies examining for the psychological effects of giving birth to an FAS child is that most of the 2,000 articles that have been published since l973 have focused on either a delineation of factors involved in the condition itself or on prevention of the syndrome (Funkhouser and Denniston, l985). Indeed, on a list of FAS topi...