International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day — September 9, 2015

Weekly

September 4, 2015 / 64(34);959

Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause a range of lifelong physical, behavioral, and intellectual disabilities known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) (1). Alcohol use during pregnancy can also cause miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity, and sudden infant death syndrome (2). During pregnancy, there is no known safe amount of alcohol use as well as no safe time and no safe type of alcohol to drink.

Each year, the ninth day of the ninth month (September 9) marks FASD Awareness Day. This day was chosen to commemorate the 9 months of pregnancy and to serve as a reminder that the best advice is to avoid any alcohol use during pregnancy. The first awareness day was recognized on 9/9/1999.

CDC is working with FASD Practice and Implementation Centers and national partners to promote systems-level practice changes among providers through training and implementation of evidence-based approaches in the prevention, identification, and management of FASDs. More information is available athttp://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fasd/training.html. Healthcare professionals can use alcohol screening and brief counseling to help people who are drinking too much to reduce their alcohol use and advise women not to drink at all if there is any chance they could be pregnant (3). More information is available athttp://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fasd/alcohol-screening.html.

FASDs are completely preventable if a woman does not drink alcohol during pregnancy. More information about FASDs and alcohol use during pregnancy is available at http://www.cdc.gov/fasd.