In your PSHE lessons , when teaching about Alcohol Awareness could you please think about going beyond ‘ personal responsibility’, and ” know your own limits”? Too many young . sexually active young people are unaware of the harm they can cause an unborn child . They may not even know they are pregnant during those first 12 weeks when all of the cell migration and foetus formation is taking place . Obviously this is an issue particularly for girls , but increasingly recent studies are showing that young men who consistently binge drink may cause a reduction in their capacity to father a healthy baby.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders amongst children continue to rise in the UK, and are phenomena that is not only perplexing the Education system , but our Society as a whole. We cannot control what our young people do , but we can encourage them to think of the lifelong implications for their unborn child. Would any of them really want to create a child with lifelong disabilities just for the sake of a binge drinking session? Many are not aware that this could be a consequence , and so are not even considering the issue and making a positive choice.
An excellent resource on ‘Fetal Alcohol Harm” has been produced by NHS Scotland. It is a designed as training materials for staff, but much of the material could be used as a stimulus for discussions with students in school.
If you want a young person with FASD to tell you what it is really like to live with this condition , I suggest you look up Morgan Fawcett on youtube.
Barry Carpenter Education 