When pregnant women drink, they put their unborn babies at risk for a wide range of physical, cognitive, and behavioral problems. In fact, prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading preventable cause of birth defects in the United States.
Nearly 40 years ago, the effects of heavy alcohol exposure on the developing fetus were first recognized. And Drs. Smith and Jones, although not alcohol researchers, were the first to coin the term fetal alcohol syndrome or FAS.1 Since then, scientists have defined a broad range of effects caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. We now refer to the disorders that fall within that broad range as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).