When Diane O’Connor adopted four children she had been fostering, she knew she had challenges ahead of her. Her previous experiences with foster children at her home in Upstate Albany had proven such kids often suffered from a variety of emotional and behavioral problems. This was understandable, given the abuse and neglect they had endured….
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Screening breast milk could increase women’s drinking and harm their babies, say doctors Opinions differ among doctors on what are safe levels of alcohol for a breastfeeding mother. A product that tests for traces of alcohol in breast milk has triggered warnings that mothers who rely on its findings could damage the health of babies….
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As the Number of Finnish children living in families with alcohol abuse issues has grown in recent years, so too has the number of pregnant Finnish women harming their unborn children through excessive use of alcohol. According to recent estimates, around six per cent of pregnant Finns drink heavily during pregnancy, meaning that over 3,000….
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Doctors say women who drink heavily early in a pregnancy – possibly before they know they are pregnant – may be raising the risk of premature delivery. A study of 4,719 Australian women found almost an 80% higher risk for women who drank heavily in the first third of pregnancy, then stopped. However, experts warned….
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According to scientists, there is a link between exposure to alcohol in the womb and an attraction to its smell during teenage life. The researchers state that a fetus can recall and be drawn to odor stimuli from what its mother ingests during pregnancy. A new study from the State University of New York found….
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One part of the prenatal brain that may be particularly sensitive to alcohol’s effects is white matter, nerve fibers through which information is exchanged between different areas of the central nervous system. A recent study has demonstrated that alcohol consumption during pregnancy can alter the microstructural integrity of developing fetal cerebral white matter in the….
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The effects of fetal alcohol exposure may be more profound than researchers hoped. Results of a new study reveal the prenatal damage to peptides in the fetal brain may endure into adulthood despite environmental enrichment provided in a child’s early years. Neurotrophins — a family of peptides produced in the nervous system — are critical….
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