Alcohol and the fetus

Abstract

Current data clearly point to an association between chronic maternal alcoholism and serious morphological and developmental abnormalities in the fetus. When these abnormalities are severe the condition is recognizable as the fetal alcohol syndrome. However, this represents only the most severe end of a spectrum of abnormalities, some of which may be found in a proportion of infants exposed to lesser amounts of alcohol during pregnancy. Alcohol is an avoidable hazard for the fetus, but only through increased awareness by the medical community and improved education of the lay public may we hope to control this problem.