Smoke Signals June 1991 page 5
Health Information :
Alcohol & Pregnancy Don't Mix
Tribal Timberccont.)
Adams. Adams explained that these type of activities
aren't all that new to the timber industry. "One of the
activities that we are experimenting with a little bit is
pruning," said Adams. "Other folks around us are doing
a little experimentation with it as well." Although the
experimental pruning has been taking place for some
time, it's the latest thing in the timber industry's quality
improvement efforts. "It is a long term project where
you go in and you limb prune trees to a certain height
and then hopefully 25 to 40 years down the road you'll
have some better quality wood," explained Adams. "So,
it's kind of a futuristic venture but, it's one that more
and more people are getting involved in."
Adams believes that the program's current activities
are enhancing the forest for future generations. "We're
going to try and gear our activities to increase the
volume and the quality of the wood." One of the
current activities that should go a long way in ensuring
an increase in both the volume and the quality of our
timber is cone collection. Adams said that although the
program has yet to do any cone collection to date, it is in
the works to have collections each time there is a timber
sale on the reservation, "Ideally, I would like to start
doing cone collections for every sale. We would mark
some of the superior looking trees for cone collection."
The seeds are then stored so that when the timber is
eventually harvested from the reservation the original
seed source can be preserved. Plans call for the estab
lishment of a seed orchard in the near future.
Right now the forestry program is preparing for the
"Windy Joe" timber sale. The sale is 7.3 million board
feet (mbf) and will take place June 18th. Other activi
ties include preparation of a logging transportation plan
that should be completed by the end of the year., "It's a
plan where all the areas are laid out into logging
settings," said Adams. "The roads and the landings are
identified throughout the entire reservation. This will
end up being a master logging plan for us so that if we
want to log 6 mbf then we'll be able to go into the areas
that we want to log and the preliminary office work will
be done."
According to Adams, Atterbury Consultants have just
completed an inventory plan of the reservation. "We
haven't had time to start analyzing it yet but what it
means is that now if we want to find out information
about a certain age or species of tree on the reservation
then we can just pull it up on the computer." Then, they
will take the just completed inventory plan and incorpo
rate it into the harvest and logging plan. This informa
tion will make up the program's forest management plan
which is a "total" plan for the reservation. "It's going to
be an 18 year plan to take the reservation through to the
end of this present agreement we're in," said Adams.
. One of the future activities that Adams is looking
forward to is taking over the maintenance of the roads
on the reservation. The Bureau of Land Management
has been doing the road maintenance until now but,
Adams feels that his staff will be ready to take over the
maintenance by the end of the year. "It will mean addi
tional work but we're preparing for that."
Tribal members should know the Tribal forestry pro
gram will be busy in the future with their myriad of
projects. Tribal members are encouraged to come and
see what the forestry program is all about. And, you
should be aware of the fact that head forester Cliff
Adams is dedicated to keeping the program at the
forefront of the latest in timber technology.
By Holly F. Reimer
Tundra Times reporter
Alcohol Related Birth Defects Awareness week started
May 12th, (Mother's Day) in Alaska, and according to
health officials not just mothers, but everyone, should be
involved. For the first time last year the governor
proclaimed the week should be set aside to increase the
awareness of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol
Effects, both caused by women who drink during
pregnancy.
Sharron Zandman-Zeman from the Department of
Health and Social Services in Anchorage said, it is
important to increase awareness and involve everybody
because drinking alcohol while pregnant is the leading
cause of retardation in the United States. If alcohol is
avoided during pregnancy, FAS and FAE are totally
preventable.
If it's that simple, why then does Alaska have the
highest incidence of FAS and FAE births in the nation?
Mary Carmen Edmonds, associate case manager at the
Prenatal Support Services Division of Southcentral
Foundation said, "The answer is as simple as the
question. Because people aren't educated in the field of
alcohol and pregnancy. Education seems to be the most
important way to get people to recognize how serious
FAS and FAE really are."
Zandman-Zeman from the state agency said the Native
FAS birth rate is 4.2 per 1000 and the non-Native
estimate is approximately 1.7 per 1000 in Alaska.
On a worldwide scale, Alaska's FAE birth rate is from
2 to 15 times greater.
Edmonds and Carol Richards, who is also a case
worker at the support center, know how important it is
to encourage women to not drink or do drugs during
pregnancy.
"We're still learning about the effects of alcohol,"
Richards said about the entire medical field. "I'm a full
fledged alcohol and drug counselor and I didn't know
that alcohol was the number one cause of retardation.
I'm still learning myself."
Edmonds and Richards say there is no way to deter
mine (even with current technology) at what stage of
pregnancy alcohol consumption is the most or least
harmful to the fetus. One must assume it's never safe to
drink while pregnant.
"It's important for the husband or boyfriend to be
involved in the alcohol or drug abstinence. They receive
the same literature and education. He should also
abstain from alcohol and drugs, keep it outside the '
house and never urge or supply it to the woman.
Families and communities can also get involved by
giving emotional support to the pregnant woman.
Everybody wants healthy children," Richards said.
Employees of the Alaska Native Medical Center along
with Edmonds and Richards, make sure pregnant
women needing help with addictions are treated non
judgementally, with love, compassion and total confiden
tiality. The first step is evaluation. The pregnant woman fills
out forms so a determination can be made whether she
is a high risk alcohol or drug user.
They make sure the woman knows about other avail
able support services, such as where to get free clothing
or food stamps.
Women who abuse alcohol or drugs should be aware of
the FAS and FAE risks if they become pregnant. If they
realize they are pregnant while they have been abusing,
they should stop using alcohol and drugs immediately
the women said.
"If the pregnant woman stops using alcoholdrugs, the
fetus will not incur any further damage. For some
women the struggle to stop is from day to day and for
others it may be from hour to hour." Edmonds said.
"Anybody can come to the center for help. When
someone misses an appointment we'll call them and ask
if they're OK or if they need anything. If they don't have
a phone we write them a letter and ask how they are and
why they couldn't make it to the appointment. If they
did drink we ask why, in what situation did they drink
and with whom did they drink. We also ask if they can
work on changing the situation in which they drink in,"
she explained.
"Moms are carrying our future," said Edmonds, who is
Choctaw and Mexican and has lived in Alaska for 17
years, "and I'm worried about what FAS and. FAE is
doing to the Native cultures."
What is FAS and FAE?
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is the name given to a consis
tent pattern of physical, mental and behavioral deficits
observed in infants of women who drink heavily during
pregnancy. Fetal Alcohol Effects describes a similar but
less severe pattern of abnormalities also due to fetal
alcohol exposure.
When a pregnant woman drinks, the blood alcohol
level of her developing child reaches the same concen
tration as her own. It takes about 48 hours for a
woman's body to detoxify after alcohol ingestion. It
takes nearly twice this time for the alcohol to be com
pletely eliminated from the fetal environment.
Research shows that children born with FAS have
congenital defects, many of which are immediately
evident. The most obvious of these are the facial
abnormalities, low birth weight and small head which
reflect inhibited brain growth.
FAS children are usually below the third to 10th
percentile of weight andor length at birth. Many have
malformations of the ears and eyes and cleft lip and
palate. Skeletal abnormalities and aberrant develop
ment of internal organs are common.
FAS children are at high risk for central nervous
system damage including mental retardation, and eating
and sleeping disorders which lead to failure to thrive.
The average IQ of FAS children generally ranges from
20 to 90: for FAE children the range is 39 to 105; the
average for both groups is 68. Parents report that as
infants, FAS children are overly irritable, difficult to
relax and do not respond to affection, all of which makes
bonding difficult.
The congenital defects associated with FAS and FAE
are irreversible.
This information was provided by the Southcentral
Foundation.