Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Drinking alcohol during pregnancy could be ruled a crime in the UK

UK Lawyers plan to take a test case to the UK Court of Appeal over claims that children harmed in the womb by their mother's drinking should receive compensation as victims of crime

Harming an unborn child by consuming alcohol during pregnancy could be classified as a crime in the UK, if an unusual legal challenge succeeds.

An English council is planning to go to the UK Court of Appeal in an attempt to secure criminal injuries compensation for a six-year-old girl who was born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FAS) as a result of her mother’s drinking while she was in the womb.

A UK tribunal ruled in 2011 that the unnamed child had sustained personal injury “directly attributable to a crime of violence” and so was eligible for a payout.

Her mother, who drank “grossly excessive quantities of alcohol” during her pregnancy, was never convicted of any offence.

But she was alleged to have maliciously administered poison so as to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm, a crime under section 23 of the UK Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

However, the UK Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority challenged the judgment, and it was overturned in December 2013 by the upper tribunal of the UK Administrative Appeals Chamber.

Judge Howard Levenson found that there had been “administration of a poison or other destructive or noxious thing, so as thereby to inflict grievous bodily harm”.

However, he concluded that the girl was “not a person” in legal terms at the time because she was still a foetus.

The judge added: “I conclude that the section 23 offence cannot be committed by a pregnant woman drinking alcohol during her pregnancy and thereby causing damage to her unborn child and that, in the present case, no evidence or argument has been offered in respect of the commission of any other offence.”

Now the council in north-west England which brought the original application for compensation on behalf of the girl, who is now in foster care, is preparing to take the case to the UK Court of Appeal.

Neil Sugarman, a managing partner at GLP Solicitors in Greater Manchester, who is handling the case, told the paper: "Sadly, we act for many, many children who have been damaged by excessive alcohol intake during pregnancy.

We were approached by a local authority with responsibility for a child very badly damaged as a consequence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FAS).

“They considered making an application under the criminal injuries compensation scheme because they thought there was an argument that the child had been damaged by being victim of a crime. The crime being; the birth mother carrying on drinking knowing that it could damage the child.”

He added: "In all the cases we have, there is good evidence that warnings have been given either by social workers or treating consultants and nurses to say, 'you cannot go on doing this, you are going to damage your child'."

There is a history of similar cases being brought to the courts in the US but with limited success.

Listen to a spokeperson from the American Bar Association. This Podcast discusses what US legal representatives need to know about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Spectrum Disorder.

Smartphones: EFM App - Prenatal scans help keep babies safe at home

KEEPING a close watch on baby and mother during pregnancy is crucial, but the equipment to do this is often found only in hospitals. 

So mothers who live far from medical centres must make long journeys to receive routine scans.

This could soon change thanks to a portable fetal-monitoring package based around a smartphone. 

Check out the research paper (pdf)

It could provide broader access to cheap monitoring systems for those in remote locations and in countries without access to the most advanced prenatal technologies.

Designed by a team of engineers, computer scientists and obstetricians at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the system uses commercially available sensors to monitor the fetal heartbeat during pregnancy or the mother's contractions during labour. 

EFM Monitoring Activity

That information is sent via Bluetooth to an Android smartphone, which processes it before relaying it to the main hospital database using whatever connections are available.

Dimitrios Mastrogiannis, the lead physician on the project, says that other health measures such as maternal oxygen saturation or blood-glucose monitors could be integrated into the system.

The work is being presented at the BodyNets conference in Oslo, Norway, this week.

Antidepressants During Pregnancy: What Are the Risks?

What is a woman struggling with depression supposed to do when she becomes pregnant?

A study published on Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry tackles the tough decision of deciding to keep taking the medication, or risk harming the fetus.

Roughly six percent of pregnant women are taking antidepressants. The struggle to live with depression or risk your baby's health has plagued women for quite some time.

The latest study included 7,696 pregnant women. Five hundred and seventy of the women suffering from depression were not on medication, and 99 women with depression "were being treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a common class of antidepressants."

What this study found is that women going untreated for depression gave birth to babies that had a reduction in total body growth.

This affected the fetal head growth as well. Those women taking prenatal SSRI also had babies that suffered from a reduced growth of the fetal head, but the overall growth of the body during pregnancy was not affected.

What are the risks for the fetus during pregnancy with antidepressants? Mothers taking antidepressants could have preterm babies, who face higher health risks like respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders.

Not only could these children be born preterm, but according to the authors of the study, reduced fetal head-growth can lead to behavioural problems and psychiatric disorders later on.

However, the risks for the mother may outweigh the risks of the pregnancy, if she discontinues antidepressant medication.

Dr. Sudeepta Varma, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone School of Medicine reported "If we are talking about a woman who can't take care of her health as a result of battling with moderate to severe depression, she faces risks to herself as well as the baby that are associated with untreated depression during pregnancy."

According to Varma, "if you don't take care of the mom, there may be no baby to speak of."

These findings however are inconclusive according to the authors of the study. "More long-term drug safety studies are needed before evidence-based recommendations can be derived," concluded the authors.