Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

For the sake of your baby - Don't drink any alcohol !

I haven't been pregnant for a long time. I can't remember if my doctor told me a couple of glasses of wine were safe to drink. It was a non issue. My dad was an abusive alcoholic. Turned me off alcohol very early in life.

Twenty nine years ago I adopted a beautiful little baby girl. I brought her home shortly after she was born seemingly healthy. Nobody had heard of FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) at that time. The first 11 years were fine. She struggled in school. Nobody knew exactly how to help her. She was amazing at maths but struggled to read the instructions of something as simple as whether she should add or subtract the numbers below. Her memory was incredible. Not a cuddly child or one that asked for a lot of help. Her speach development was slow but not unusual. She was a middle child surrounded by two boys and out of all my children was the one who landed up in emergency for cuts and scrapes the most.

Today, I have adopted and am raising her two children. She is incapable. Her disorder led her to drugs, homelessness, alcohol, abusive partners. Life is hard and there is no help for her. No programs to counteract the effects of the damage inflicted on this innocent child by an unknowing mother.

Her babies? Also afflicted. Differently. And I have now discovered the incredible support and programs and professionals that were available to us over the last four years are gone now that she's in school. Yes, we've managed to do amazing things with her development because we now know what alcohol does to unborn children but to have her funding stopped! Now ! Just as she ventures into a world of independence there is no longer support to guide her, to focus her, to encourage her.

My journey starts now. Fight for funding. Change the funding requirements. Make sure this one - this beautiful little, bright, loving child whom I love dearly will not fall through the cracks and become another statistic. One of loneliness, pain, discomfort, fear, cold, hunger, jail and abuse. Not this one. Not if I can help it !