GPs have been too concerned about offending people to warn women of the dangers of drinking while pregnant, leaving their unborn children at risk of birth defects, a professor of pediatrics says.
Dr Elizabeth Elliott, professor of paediatrics and child health at the University of Sydney and a paediatrician at Westmead's Children's Hospital, works with the Fitzroy Valley community in Western Australia and deals with children who have foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) because their mothers drank while pregnant.
She says the next generation of Aboriginal children faces great health risks due to significant socio-economic disadvantage compounded by parental alcohol abuse.
"Children are harmed by their parents using alcohol. They're unsupervised, they have accidents, they may be subject to sexual or physical abuse and they suffer the consequences of their parents being drunk and in jail," Dr Elliott told AAP.
She said Aboriginal mothers often didn't know their drinking was having such a severe impact on their babies, due mainly to a lack of educational programs tackling the issue.
"They've got no concept that alcohol is toxic, crosses the placenta and can damage the developing brain and result in lifelong problems for their child and when people realise that they do feel guilty," Dr Elliott said.
She said health professionals aren't particularly well-versed in FASD and so don't ask about alcohol use during pregnancy.
"They're worried about upsetting people," she said.
Dr Elliott said half of pregnancies nation-wide are unplanned, so educators need to target young girls early about contraception and the danger of drinking while pregnant.
Surveys of Australian women suggest that anywhere between 20 to 80 per cent drink something during their pregnancy, while other studies show that about the same proportion of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women drink during pregnancy, she said.
"But the patterns of drinking are different," Dr Elliott said.
Although only half of women drink during pregnancy, the women who do drink drink at very high levels and babies are being born with facial deformities and mental and emotional disabilities.
"We know in remote Aboriginal communities there's a high risk of FASD ... there are a lot of vulnerable children," Dr Elliott said.
She stressed that the problem was not only an indigenous one but simply more visible in remote communities.
There have been increasing cases of babies in cities presenting with FASD.
Dr Elliott said the government needed to restrict alcohol sales.
"Our hospitals are full of people with alcohol-related cancer, brain disease, liver disease, let alone the secondary effects to children and others," she said.
"But everyone, regardless of what their health issues are, wants the best for their children."
This creates an opportunity to help them influence the development, well-being and long-term outcomes for their child, she said.
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