Discuss how alcohol and drugs can impact the development of a child when a woman uses these substances during her pregnancy.

In the most basic of ways, one can grasp how alcohol and
drug intake during pregnancy can impact the child.  Whatever the mother takes, the fetus
does, as well.  This works in both good and bad, and makes the case against taking
alcohol and drugs while pregnant stunningly powerful.  It has only been in the last
three to four decades that this link has been fully
analyzed.

The understanding behind Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
(FAS) has helped prove the disastrous link between drinking alcohol while pregnant and
the impact this has on the developing child.  First established in 1973 when studying
"the physical problems of seen in the offspring of alcoholic women," FAS has "become the
number one cause of mental retardation in the United States."  The exact nature of why
alcohol causes such emotional, physical and neurological damage to the child while the
mother is pregnant is not fully grasped because all organisms respond to alcohol intake
differently and the timing of when it is taken during the pregnancy also plays a
significant role.  Yet, FAS is now taken as fairly strong evidence that alcohol intake
during pregnancy can impact the healthy development of
children.

Complications during pregnancy can also be linked
to drug use.  Smoking and drug use can also induce difficulty during the delivery
process that impacts the child and the mother due to weaknesses in the immune system of
both.  In the end, the intake of alcohol and drugs during pregnancy has been shown quite
conclusively to not enhance the health and development of children and
mothers.