Endangered Species: The Effects of Drugs and Alcohol on Reproduction

Client:

McLean Hospital

Audience:

Donors

Goal:

Share the latest research, at McLean and elsewhere, on how drugs and alcohol affect a woman's ability to conceive, her pregnancy, and the health of her fetus

Role:

Writing

How young is too young to have a stroke? Sixty years? Fifty? What about less than a day old - considerably less. Perhaps while still in the womb?

Unborn babies are having strokes. Their numbers are few but still alarming, especially when their tragedy is the result of a mother's cocaine abuse.

These youngest stroke victims dramatize a troubling national problem. According to the most recent statistics from the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, illicit drug use among women is highest during prime child-bearing years, with 21 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds reporting recent drug use and more than 15 percent of 26- to 34-year-olds acknowledging the same. The number who use alcohol and marijuana is even higher.