Please join us for a brief “Pregnant Pause” at Dundas & Yonge. We will scramble through the intersection with our balloons in place, placards on high for about 30 min. The FASDay Proclamation from Mayor John Tory will be read and there will be a brief moment of reflection. You can make a difference. Meet us in front of the Eaton Centre, SW corner, Yonge & Dundas, from 0845 to 0915. Balloons and t-shirts supplied. Let us know if you are coming.
Bring friends and family to make a point with our politicians and professionals who care! Meet the greatest caregivers in the GTA.
FASDay has become a worldwide event. Created in Toronto in 1999 on Sept. 9 by FASworld Canada, FASDay is now observed in over 65 countries in every time zone around the world.
International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day (FASDay) was created to remind everyone that a woman should avoid alcohol when planning and during pregnancy. In our communities, men, women and children join together in support of pregnant women and those families who are raising children who struggle with FASD.
As pioneer Dr. Christine Loock warns us, “FASD is the most common, most expensive, yet most preventable of all mental disorders in the industrialized world.” Your presence at this year’s FASDay event in Toronto will reinforce the idea that drinking when planning and during pregnancy is dangerous to the brain development of the baby.
Because 50% of pregnancies in Canada are unplanned and social drinking is commonplace, brain trauma resulting in a myriad of potential learning and behaviour disabilities, means that baby is at high risk throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy.
Recent studies indicate that as many as 2-5% of live births in Canada and the US are affected by some form of prenatal alcohol exposure. Health Canada states that over 350,000 Canadians are already trying to cope with this issue at an unbudgeted cost equivalent to our national debt. This is bigger than any “disease of the week”. Help us change attitudes about drinking in pregnancy.