Still, mind-altering drugs have a tendency to permanently alter a future child's mental development. The amount taken in during the whole pregnancy is the most important amount to be considered. Even, the amount of alcohol over a woman's life may be a factor. A woman alcoholic has a greater chance of having a baby with fetal alcohol syndrome with each pregnancy she has. Here's what happens when a pregnant woman drinks.
Alcohol can pass freely from the woman's bloodstream into the fetus.
But, fetuses do not have the ability to breakdown alcohol that people do. And it stays in the amniotic fluid, long after it leaves the fetal blood. The affects of alcohol on the fetus can be low blood sugar, low insulin levels, and low thyroid levels. This all translates into low birth weight and higher rates of spontaneous abortion and birth defects. Fetal Alcohol syndrome is the worst of all this.