Most African Americans are descendants of people who also were stripped of the cultural factors that protected them. Unfortunately, liquor stores are one of the mainstays within low-income black communities. I suspect that poor African American women either drink in their first month before they know they are pregnant and/or may be ignorant about the dangers of drinking while pregnant that they drink after they know. The impact of prenatal exposure to alcohol to the hippocampus of the developing fetus is devastating (Hippocampus 2000;10:94-110).
In order to change the trajectory of the lives of our poor patients – and address the Disproportionate Minority Contact mandate of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Act – we’ve got to put a prevention system in place that, among other things, educates them about the dangers of maternal alcohol ingestion. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a problem that is 100% preventable.
Dr. Bell is president/chief executive officer of Community Mental Health Council Inc. in Chicago. He also serves as director of the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is director of public and community psychiatry at the university.