FASD -- De Aar mums get beyond the ‘tippling point’

Abstract

When most of the low-income folk in the 'ghost train' town of De Aar began remonstrating with any pregnant mother who was boozing, excited campaigners thought they'd broken through the 'tippling point'. However, their research colleagues proved they'd gone even further -- the dedicated local platoon of social workers, nurses, therapists and volunteers had in three short years reduced the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) by 30%. This is in a town with the worst recorded FASD prevalence in any single community in the world, where 120 out of every 1 000 residents suffer from FASD (12%).