September 9th is FASD Awareness Day

The Struggle Is Real September 9th is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day. It is a time when the WCTU promotes the importance of abstinence through educating the public. In 1966, at Newcomb Hospital in Vineland, New Jersey, a baby girl was born three months premature, weighing only 3.2 pounds. The room was filled with excitement, but it quickly turned to concern as the baby did not cry, open her eyes, or respond to touch or sound. Nurses and doctors exchanged frantic whispers, trying to figure out what to do next. The baby was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where she stayed for the next three months. Her mother was informed that the infant was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Failure to Thrive, and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Overcome with guilt for not following medical advice to abstain from smoking and drinking during pregnancy, the mother chose to leave the newborn in the care of the hospital and Child Protective Services upon discharge and did not return to her child's life. This abandonment left the child to face lifelong emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges, relying on her faith in God to navigate through these difficulties.

What is FASD? Any substance that can cross the blood-brain barrier of a mother and a fetus can be dangerous to the development of an unborn child. When an individual smokes, drinks, vapes, or takes illicit or legal substances, such as doctor-prescribed medications, these substances enter the mother's bloodstream and are distributed to the unborn child throughout the pregnancy. Good oxygen and nutrients in the mother's blood are replaced with toxins and carbon dioxide, which travel from the mother's blood through the placenta and damages the brain development of the unborn child. The brain controls every aspect of human development, including speech, movement, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The severity of the child's disability at birth depends on where these toxins land in the brain during pregnancy. In this baby's case, long exposure to ethanol toxin in alcohol caused Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, also known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Smoking replaced the healthy oxygen the baby needed to develop normally with carbon monoxide, a dangerous, odorless, colorless gas that is a toxic byproduct of burning fuel and is often fatal and found in cigarettes.

What happened to the baby? The baby girl remained in the hospital for three months due to her special health needs. She became a Ward of the State and moved around to different foster homes due to her complicated health issues. By the age of five, she had been in five foster homes because she was labeled a hard-to-place, emotionally disturbed foster child and was never adopted. She started out in special needs school and was bullied by children in traditional school. She found Christ at an early age, and when she became homeless at the age of 20 due to lack of love and support, she trusted God and He provided a way for her to attend nursing school, where she became a Registered Nurse. She went on to marry and have a son. These days, she is single, and her son is in college. Due to her cerebral palsy, she now walks with a walker, but God is using her in wonderful ways as a member of the NJ Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. This is why the message of abstinence and temperance is so important not only to you but to the future of your children. That baby girl born in 1966 was me! - Written For the Woman's Christian Temperance Union Of New Jersey

(for Summer edition Newsletter)