Caring Causes: Love Hope Joy

The Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (MOFAS) is spreading love, hope and joy to moms in Minnesota through a new 3 month public awareness campaign that uses these three positive, uplifting and empowering words to talk about the serious issue of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).  FASD is caused when a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy. FASD is common, costly, and 100% preventable.

The goal of the campaign is to educate and create awareness about the danger of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, and serve as a reminder to women, that there is a connection between decisions she makes during pregnancy and her baby.

I had the chance to interview Emily Gunderson, director of communications for MOFAS, to learn more.

What are the effects of FASD on kids?

Children whose mother drank during pregnancy may be born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and display lifelong behavior, learning and sensory problems.  Alcohol impacts the frontal lobe of the brain where many of the executive functions are impacted.  Specifically, they might have:

·         Significant memory problems

·         Gaps in the thinking process making abstract reasoning difficult

·         Slower pace of thinking, understanding

·         Impulsivity

·         Sensitivity to light and sounds

·         Difficulty understanding safety and danger

·         Difficulty managing time, money and schedules.

As a result, many with an FASD disability often struggle with pain, frustration and are often taken advantage of upon by others.

 

How do the themes of love, hope, and joy fit into the awareness campaign?

Love. Hope. Joy are three words that are inspiring, uplifting and empowering. And often times, describes a mom-to-be’s emotions about her pregnancy and dreams for her child.  In the new 2014 public awareness campaign, MOFAS uses these three words as a reminder to young women, who are pregnant or could become pregnant, that there is a connection between the decisions a mom-to-be makes and her unborn baby.   

 

What can people do to help spread awareness to prevent FASD?

The goal of the campaign is to educate and create awareness so young women have good information to make good decisions.  Our hope is that providers – doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas, yoga instructors etc. who may influence a woman’s decisions, will give the same consistent information:  there is no safe level of alcohol while pregnant.  So we need people talking about this issue in order to remove the stigma around alcohol during pregnancy and ideally change the social norm. 

 

Posters and window clings are available to share this message on a wide scale.