On the occasion of commemorating this Friday the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Daythe Ministry of Public Health highlighted the damage caused by the consumption of alcohol during the pregnancyincluding abnormal facial features, problems with growth, learning, and memory, as well as failure of the child’s vision or hearing.
For this reason, “In a short time, a resolution will come from the Ministry of Health where the lines will be drawn so that colmados and colmadones can respect the non-sale of alcohol to pregnant women “, assured Elías Tejeda, psychologist of the Ministry’s Mental Health cluster.
The purpose is that this decision then become law“but first we are going to wait for the resolution”, he pointed out.
In the Dominican Republic, the 52% of pregnant women have admitted to drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
According to Tejeda, this has the consequence that we have “a high risk of children who may be born with some disorder of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum (EAF)”.
The doctor explained that “beer is the most consumed beverage for pregnant women.
In this regard, the director of Mother, Child and Adolescents of the National Health Service (SNS), Martín Ortiz, declared that one of the most mistaken popular beliefs is to think that drinking beer in the pregnancy makes the baby “born clean”
The call of the Health authorities is not to take a single drop of alcohol During the gestation period and in case a woman has plans to become a mother, attend preconceptual gynecological consultations, in order to orient herself and prepare her body for the new stage.
Ortiz acknowledged that many mothers take alcohol during the first weeks of pregnancy due to ignorance of her pregnant condition.
For his part, the director of the Department of Mental Health of the Ministry, Alexander Uribesaid that the alcohol can act and interfere with the nervous system from the beginning of the pregnancyalso affect the normal development of the creature, for which he called on mothers and society as a whole to avoid the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the period of pregnancy.
The Director of Public Health, Jocastia de Jesusstated that it is important to address these issues from a general perspective to strengthen prevention in a way that is oriented to the pregnant with some type of alcohol dependency in the different health centers and their communities, offering them training.
