Thanks to a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Oregon Public Health Division brought posters, stickers and fact cards bearing an important message to the University in September last year.
“Forgot to open this?” read the headline of the poster next to a picture of a condom. “Then don’t open this,” it said next to an image of a beer bottle.
The Don’t Open This campaign’s message, said spokeswoman Jesse Domingo, was the health division’s effort to warn young women about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a disorder children may contract when their mothers drink any amount of alcohol at any time during pregnancy.
According to the CDC, FAS is the severe end of a spectrum of effects that can affect a fetus when a woman drinks while she is pregnant. The most extreme case of FAS will result in fetal death, but children who survive can also have abnormal facial features, brain developmental disorders or behavioral problems. A recent CDC study showed that for every 1,000 live births, 0.2 to 1.5 cases of FAS occur. Other less serious fetal alcohol disorders are four times as prevalent.
Domingo said she wanted the campaign at the University so that young women could learn the facts about FAS before they reach child-bearing age.
“If you’re exposed to information, the more people are educated on the issue at hand,” Domingo said. “It’s not in the forefront of college students’ minds, but a lot of college women were found to be binge drinking a lot and at high levels.”
The Public Health Division campaigned the most during orientation week in September, when University freshmen began to arrive on campus. Campus groups still distribute the posters in bathrooms and fitness centers to reinforce the message.
“I think the image of the condom and the bottle really got people’s attention,” Domingo said.
Paula Staight, a University Health Center spokeswoman, said the campaign was effective because it didn’t just tell students the facts about FAS.
“It helps them to use contraception now, and later, if they have a baby, they’ll have a healthy baby and not drink during the pregnancy,” Staight said.
In conjunction with the campaign, the health center offers an intervention program called Project Balance for students who are concerned they are at risk.
“If a female student who is worried completes an anonymous survey that reveals they are high alcohol consumers and they don’t contracept properly, they’ll be asked to see an interventionist,” Staight said.
Interventionists screen the student for FAS or related disorders and provide counseling for her.
“They assess the student’s behavior and from there do some goal fitting and decision making and provide them with tools and motivate them to prevent alcohol-exposed pregnancies,” Domingo said.
Although a small percentage of University students are pregnant or plan to have children soon, Staight said, “I think it’s worthwhile if even one student receives help from the interventionists.”
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