By CATHERINE MASTERS
The prison population may be littered with victims of foetal-alcohol syndrome.
Starship children's hospital specialist Dr Rosie Marks suspects that is the case - although no research exists to prove it - and yesterday called for careful examination of what could be an enormous problem.
Speaking outside a conference in Auckland yesterday, Dr Marks said she believed foetal-alcohol syndrome was endemic in the general population.
"As far as the prison population is concerned, we don't have a clue, but it certainly is a worry," she said.
"If pre-natal alcohol exposure is a significant factor in our high crime rate and our prison population then we could save billions and billions of dollars - and an unquantifiable amount of human distress - by acting to try and prevent as much foetal-alcohol exposure as possible."
Foetal-alcohol syndrome is said to be the single biggest preventable cause of mental retardation in the Western world.
The syndrome occurs when the mother drinks alcohol in pregnancy, but children are not always affected.
If the woman drinks heavily at a certain time in her pregnancy - around 21 days, when she may not even know she is pregnant - it can lead to a child with distinctive facial features.
Children may also look normal yet still be affected.
Many affected children are hyperactive and troublesome at school. Some go on to have trouble with the law.
Dr Marks said drinking patterns in New Zealand women, especially of child-bearing age, were worrying and consumption seemed to be on the rise.
A study published last year showed the number of women drinking to the point of intoxication once a month had risen from 14 per cent in 1990 to 30 per cent in 1998.
Pregnant drinking may fill jails
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