July 21, 2000
VALERIE G. CONNELL
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT — In an effort to educate youth and young adults and support families living with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol effect (FAE), Pauktuutit, the Inuit women’s association, announced last week they are developing a video to be distributed throughout Inuit communities.
Pauktuutit said in a news release that they have received money from Health Canada and Justice Canada to develop the video, but are still $80,000 short of the total funding needed.
They hope to complete the video by February, 2001.
Regional Inuit associations, health boards and the government of Nunavut have been approached by the project’s steering committee, and the committee is generating "all kinds of ideas" to obtain the necessary funding to complete the video, Pauktuutit said.
The video will focus on prevention and the consequences of alcohol consumption, said Leetia Kowalchuk, a wellness counsellor with the fetal alcohol syndrome network in Iqaluit and a member of the video steering committee.
"It’s preventable — 100 per cent preventable," Kowalchuk said."
Doing "harm reduction" is a way to help prevent FAS/E, she said.
Encouraging people drinking during pregnancy to cut down or stop drinking, getting information about FAS/E, and encouraging people to talk to counsellors are some of the ways people can do "harm reduction."
Pregnant women need support from their husbands, spouses or boyfriends to not drink, Kowalchuk said.
Education about FAS/E, and family and community support is needed to help people living with FAS/E, Pauktuutit said in its resource book, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
FAS/E can result when a woman drinks alcohol while she is pregnant and the effects are life-long, she said.
In a pregnant woman, alcohol is absorbed by the body and can easily cross the placenta and get into the circulatory system of a fetus.
The fetus cannot get rid of the alcohol because of its small and underdeveloped liver and enzyme system. The fetus is exposed to alcohol for longer periods than the mother.
The following are ways in which alcohol in pregnancy can affect children according to Pauktuutit.
• Children with FAS/E may be smaller in size and weigh less, head size may be smaller, they get sick easily, taking longer to recover, and as babies they can be colicky and fussy.
• As they get older, affected children may be hyperactive as toddlers and have trouble learning. Most children with FAS only mature intellectually to about a Grade 4 level (around the age of 8).
• Affected children may also have heart defects, kidney and liver problems.
• Facial features such as small head, shorter eye-length, flat area between nose and upper lip, thin upper lip, low nose-bridge, ear deformities, or ears lower on head, flat mid-face and small chin and jaw areas.
"When a baby is born they can go through withdrawal," Kowalchuk said. "[The] body can be very stiff when born and have the shakes too."
In these cases, the baby’s body needs to be massaged downwards everyday or muscle problems may result and the child may not be able to walk later on.
People with FAS/E may have problems with managing time, forget things easily, and may know something one day and not the next.
"They may get emotionally confused," Kowalchuk said. "For example, if tickled they may cry instead of laugh and don’t know which emotions are appropriate."
Socializing may be affected for people with FAS/E because boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour are confused. For example, a child may be loving and huggy but may not know the right time for this behaviour as an adult, Kowalchuk said.People with FAS/E may have problems with the law, education and social skills, she said.
There is no single way that a person, whether baby, child, youth or adult reacts to the syndrome. "Each child handles it differently," Kowalchuk said.
FAS and FAE differ only in that as a syndrome FAS symptoms encompass all aspects of the condition and FAE the person will not have all the symptoms. For example, a person may be affected emotionally and mentally, but not physically, Kowalchuk said.
Kowalchuk said there have not been studies done to show the affects of father’s drinking on their sperm and an unborn child conceived when a man had been drinking.
Pauktuutit is making the video in partnership with Taqramuit Productions Inc., and a steering committee with representatives from the Western Arctic, Nunavut, Nunavik, Labrador, the Nunavut Council for Persons with Disabilities, the National Inuit Youth Council and the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada.
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