Pregnant women cautioned against alcohol intake

A midwife at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi is cautioning pregnant women against the consumption of alcoholic beverages, warning of serious consequences including deformities to their unborn babies.

Ms. Juliana Bosomprah who is the Deputy Director of Nursing Services at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of KATH said if a pregnant women takes in alcohol, it enters her bloodstream and passed on to the unborn baby thus exposing it to irreparable damage.

Speaking to some pregnant women at a sensitization programme in Kumasi, Ms. Bosomprah said the situation could even lead to miscarriages.

“Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is a condition characterized by facial deformities, behavioural and learning problems that occur in persons whose mothers consumed alcohol while pregnant,” she said.

She said this at an Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) programme to sensitize women on the dangers of alcohol consumption during pregnancy as part of the company’s social corporate responsibility.

Started four years ago, the programme, organized in partnership with the Reproductive Health Out Patient Departments of some major health facilities, has so far impacted over 3,000 women.

Ms. Bosomprah told the pregnant women that unborn babies absorb alcohol when it enters the blood stream causing damage to the foetus’ developing cells and nervous system; something she indicated could cause miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births.

The midwife introduced the women to the effects of alcohol consumption on the mother and her unborn child, and advised women to stay away from alcohol prior to and during pregnancy.

Corporate Affairs Manager of ABL, Cyrus deGraft-Johnson, said the programme is geared towards the safety of pregnant women and their unborn babies.

“This sensitization programme forms part of our social responsibility to keep mothers and their babies healthy”.

Source: 3news.com