“I brought you into this world and I can take you out!” A child has most likely heard this phrase at some point in his or her life. While it is not ethical or legal for a mother to “take her child out of this world,” it brings up a good point that it was through her body that the child was born. One of the most important responsibilities in this world is a mother carrying a child in the womb. There are many divine processes that take place during gestation, but there are also many contributing factors on the mother's side that can influence human development. These factors may include what a woman ingests and exposes her embryo or fetus to. Unfortunately, alcohol consumption during pregnancy is an ongoing problem that can have harmful effects on the fetus, including fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Choosing to drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy is a choice, a risky choice. Unfortunately some women don't even know that they are making a risky choice by consuming alcohol because it is in the early stages of pregnancy. It is common for a woman not to find out she is pregnant until at least the fifth or sixth week after fertilization. In 2006, in a national survey, 49% of all pregnancies in the United States were reported as unintended.1 The highest rate of preventable birth defects and mental retardation is due to alcohol consumption.2 In this article I will further discuss the FAS, the potential effects of binge eating during the embryonic stage of gestation and what actions need to be taken to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related birth defects. Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy Alcohol is an ethanol-containing substance that is a common drink in many social and private contexts. Alcohol is also teratogenic, so alcohol co...... middle of paper ...... children aged 5.5 years.8 Schambra et. all exposed mice to alcohol during the related time period between human gastrulation and neurulation and found that alcohol exposure during this vulnerable developmental period resulted in delayed sensorimotor and physical development.11 In the womb, something that can be tested is habituation, which is a decrease in reactivity to repeated stimuli.9 In a study conducted by Hepper, results indicated that the fetal response to a binge-like exposure to alcohol increased the number of trials required for habituation and also increased the variability of performance. This could be interpreted as a negative effect of alcohol on neural integrity and brain areas involved in habituation, potentially the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.9 Structural damage in the brain could cause developmental abnormalities after birth.