FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) is a diagnostic term for severe neurodevelopmental impairments (you may see these as difficulties with physical activities, language, memory, learning and behaviour) that result from brain damage caused by alcohol exposure before birth.

FASD is a lifelong disability. Individuals with FASD will experience differing degrees of challenges in their daily living, and often need support with motor skills, physical health, learning, memory, attention, communication, emotional regulation, and social skills to reach their full potential. Each individual with FASD is unique and has areas of both strengths and challenges.

FASD is a hidden physical brain-based disability which often goes unrecognised for many years, and is frequently misdiagnosed, a missed diagnosis and/or a co-occurring diagnosis. FASD is thought to affect between 2 and 5% of the Australian population…this makes FASD more prevalent than Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida and Down Syndrome COMBINED, and yet, due to the stigma around alcohol-exposed pregnancies, this lifelong disability remains ‘unseen’ and misunderstood.

Alcohol can cause damage to the unborn child at any time during pregnancy, even before a pregnancy has been confirmed. The level of harm is dependent on a wide range of factors, making it impossible to predict the outcome of alcohol exposure to any individual pregnancy. Factors include the amount and frequency of alcohol use, parent age and health of the mother (nutrition, tobacco use, mental health) and environmental factors such as stress.