We will be talking about fetal alcohol, spectrum disorders. Maybe you were exposed, maybe your child was exposed, maybe your loved one, spouse or somebody else was. No shame, but let’s understand the impact it could’ve had.
Barb Clark greets viewers and states her name and role as an FASD consultant and coach.
She invites viewers to consider and optionally share whether they or people they know were prenatally exposed to alcohol.
Covers the 1973 identification of FASD, historical medical advice (including use of alcohol drips) and the likelihood of many undiagnosed people and common misdiagnoses.
Barb recounts being born in 1968, her mother's social drinking, her daughter's later FASD diagnosis, and her gradual realization of related symptoms over many years.
She emphasizes there is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy, notes ongoing misinformation among professionals, mentions emerging research about paternal effects, and recommends both parents avoid alcohol three months before conception when possible.
Describes her daughter's early milestones followed by puzzling behaviors, explains that typical parenting strategies often don't work, and highlights variable sensory and eating issues common in people with FASD.
Thanks viewers, invites questions, announces her regular livestream schedule and upcoming travel, and signs off.
Hello everybody. My name is Barb Clark. I am an FASD consultant and coach. FASD stands for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Anyways, I'm excited to be doing this is my second live stream and what I'm talking about a little bit here today and I talked about this somewhat on my first one was I'm wondering if if you've thought about and you don't have to disclose this. You don't have to put this in the chat box. You're welcome to if you want. But were you prenatally exposed to alcohol potentially?
Or maybe did you have children who were prenatally exposed to alcohol in utero? Or maybe you have a good friend or family, good friend or family member who also had been prenatally exposed to alcohol. So what we have to think about with that, sorry, I'm getting a little message saying that my internet is unstable, which is really weird because It's normally pretty strong. So hopefully this is actually working. But here's the thing is 1973, what was that? A little over 50 years ago. I suck at mathing, as I've said, I'll say, and I'll say it probably on every stinking live stream.
Over 50 years ago is when this was discovered. And that still is pretty young in the medical and research kind of world. And so this is still a fairly young disability, if that's what we want to call it. And prior to 1973, you guys, they used to tell women to use alcohol when they were pregnant. They would say that it would help the baby drop if the baby was up too high and we needed it to drop lower when it was getting closer to you know, time to deliver. They said it would help calm the nerves.
They used to even use an alcohol drip in an IV at the hospital if a pregnant parent went to the hospital with premature labor. So, they would use it to stop labor contractions. org in Minnesota, and they are the FASD education, awareness and advocacy group in Minnesota, and they actually work a lot nationally as well. And when I worked there, I worked with two different families who figured out when their kids were nearly 40 almost or something that they had an FASD from an IV drip. Imagine how many of the, you know, I bet you there's millions of older adults walking around.
I shouldn't say older. Good Lord, that'd be my age. But and I guess I am old. Anyways, millions of them just walking around who were impacted and are probably misdiagnosed with all of those various things that I say are common misdiagnoses like ADHD, like autism, bipolar, Reactive attachment disorder is really common if we have kiddos who were in adoptive, foster or kinship settings, disruptive mood disorder, personality disorder, all those different things are really common. And so anyways, again, as I said, I was born in 1968.
My mother did not do this intentionally. She was a social drinker throughout her life. She passed away a little over 20 years ago here or so. But she didn't do this intentionally. And I'll never forget when my daughter was six and I was telling her that I finally figured out what's going on with Aquila. And I said, I think she has this thing called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders because her birth mom used alcohol when she was pregnant with her. And my mom goes, well, I drank when I was pregnant with you and you're fine.
And she kind of poo-pooed it and I was like, wow, we're lucky it didn't really impact me. But then as I go deeper into this, I realize, it took me years, by the way, years. My daughter was six when she was diagnosed 21 years ago. And it took me years to really dive in and understand this disability and brain-based kind of disorder. And I'm still trying to figure it out for goodness sakes, 27 years later. And so, you know, it's a complicated one. But as I'm speaking and training on this, I'm like, wait a minute, I have a lot of these symptoms.
They're just, again, not as profoundly impacted as my daughter was. Now, she was exposed to higher levels of alcohol in utero than I was. And honestly, even just a handful of binge drinking episodes early on in pregnancy before it is realized can have a really negative impact on a developing fetus. There is no safe amount of alcohol for a developing fetus. And so, you know, so there's still misinformation. There are still medical doctors and other professionals who say it's okay to use lightly or moderately, and they are wrong, you guys.
I read all the research that comes out on this daily, literally. I get daily updates on research. I don't go in depth in all of it. I don't have that much time or brain capacity, but I do follow the stuff, and I was just in DC last week and learn some new research. By the way, we're gonna be talking about this on some other calls. The father's alcohol use can also play a factor in this. Now, currently only the mother's use is used in diagnostics, of course, right? 'Cause that's how our society works and that's gonna have to change, but it's gonna take years because the research is really just emerging now that is showing, you know, the father's use and the impact that it can have to preconception and during conception.
The ideally, and I'm sure I'll say this in many different lives over the upcoming months, ideally both parents should stop using alcohol three months before pregnancy. And obviously we can't do that if it was an unplanned pregnancy. But if we are planning pregnancy, three months minimum of no alcohol use for both parents is what is going to be most ideal for optimal health for that child. Now, again, I was born healthy birth weight, had typical developmental things in those early years, as did my daughter, by the way.
I've had her, she's been in our family since she was five weeks of age. She was in a loving foster home before she came to our home. And she developmentally was right on track in those early years, very bright. did all the things that she's supposed to, rolled over, talked, walked, cooed, all the things when she was supposed to. But even as a toddler, there was some behaviors that we were like, wait, what's going on here? This isn't working. And the typical parenting strategies just didn't work, which we're going to be diving into.
I got so much to say, you guys. I got so much to say. So anyways, and even me, I had typical development. I did okay in school. I did okay socially. I didn't have any really crazy behaviors. And my parents have both been gone for well over 20 years. So there's so many things I would love to be asking them about some of my childhood things that I did do because I've realized as I sit literally every month, I have a memory of something else that hits me like I was a super picky eater and that is a common thing eating.
Eating disorders and eating issues for our population is pretty high. And I literally grew up on peanut butter and jelly and it was a big joke within my family. I would not try weird foods and I definitely would never touch seafood, for example. I can't stand the smell and the slithery aspect of it. That's a sensory processing disorder thing. Now, but my daughter, on the other hand, loves seafood. Like, so our sensory profiles are always different. But anyways, we're just going to be diving into this, you guys, and be talking about that alcohol exposure and the impact that it can have.
Again, it doesn't mean that we need to be mad at parents who are using alcohol while pregnant or prior to pregnancy even, or things like that. It means we need to understand this so that we can better understand our brains, our children's brains, our coworkers' brains, our friends' brains, like everybody that is in our life. You all know people who have an FASD. We're likely not diagnosed with it, but I can guarantee you every single person listening to this knows a handful of people with FASD. Once you start learning about it more, you can't take those glasses off.
You're gonna see it all over. Every time you're driving down the road, there's some idiot driving like a clown. You're gonna be like, oh, there's somebody with FASD. I just give them all grace and just think they got brain. So I'm excited that you guys are joining me on this walk and feel free to put questions in the chat and I will answer them when I can as well. But thank you very much for joining me today and I will see you next time. I'm gonna be doing this for sure every Monday afternoon at, 30 PM Eastern, 3:30 Central.
Not gonna do the other time zones 'cause I'm very time zone challenged y'all. But I'll also be doing some others that I'm going to sprinkle in and out here whenever I have the time to do it. I'm not traveling a lot for the next week. Actually, I'm coming to Minnesota in a week. And then I'm gone for 10 days. I hit the road a lot doing work and training in this area. But I appreciate y'all listening. I hope you have a fabulous rest of your day.
