Friday, May 19, 2006
A Mother's Story
This article if from The Billings Gazette
Mother uses story to spotlight fetal alcohol syndrome
By DIANE COCHRANOf The Gazette Staff
Jill Plumage never imagined she would be recognized as an expert on fetal alcohol syndrome. "Isn't that ironic?" asked Plumage, who is the FAS coordinator on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. "The one thing in my life I am considered an expert for is the one thing in my life I would change."
Plumage's son has fetal alcohol syndrome."He was born drunk," she said. "They put him on my stomach, and I could smell alcohol on his breath."
Still, she didn't stop drinking. She interpreted her doctor's advice to improve her breast milk by drinking beer as a green light to consume massive amounts of alcohol.
"I didn't hear two to three cans of beer a day. I heard two to three cases. I heard two to three fifths," Plumage said. "I was clicking my heels."
When her son was a few months old, Plumage realized she could not care for him, and her sister adopted him. Fifteen years passed before she was able to talk about it, even to herself.Now Plumage travels around Montana and the nation telling her story.
On Tuesday, she spoke at a Billings workshop sponsored by Parents, Let's Unite for Kids."I'm not a professional. I'm just a little, humble Indian woman from Fort Belknap," she said. "I have a 30-year-old son who is FAS. I'm not proud to stand here and tell you that, but I am proud to tell you my son asked me to come and tell you about it."
In her youth, Plumage went to alcohol treatment 22 times. She met and fell in love with her son's father in one of those programs.After being released from treatment, the couple started drinking again and didn't stop when Plumage discovered she was pregnant.
She remembers feeling her baby move inside her when she was sober and how he fell still when she drank. She would tell his father that he was sleeping, and when the movement resumed, usually about three days after she sobered up, she would say the baby was awake again."I didn't know in my head, but, in my heart, I knew," Plumage said. "My baby didn't go to sleep. My baby passed out. Our baby didn't wake up. Our baby came to."
When Plumage was eight months pregnant, the baby's father was killed in an alcohol-related car crash. She was prescribed Librium to help deal with the grief.
"That's all I did was drink whiskey and eat Librium," she said.
She sobered up about three days before going into labor, but the baby was still intoxicated. She watched him go through withdrawals in a hospital incubator.Despite his obvious birth defects, no one said a word to her about her alcohol abuse.With the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, Plumage stopped drinking on July 4, 1978. She earned an undergraduate degree from what was then Eastern Montana College and moved back to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, where she was eventually appointed as the tribe's fetal alcohol syndrome coordinator.
In addition to her speaking engagements, Plumage helps coordinate a University of New Mexico study about FAS on the reservation. To date, the study has tested about 100 children for FAS, and 17 have been diagnosed with the disorder.Nationwide, FAS occurs in about 1 out of every 1,000 births, Plumage said."If we have 17 out of 100, what's going to happen to our next generation?" Plumage asked. "The only way I know to make change is to be honest."Her hope -- and her son's hope -- is that telling their story will prevent other women from drinking while they are pregnant.
"It only happens one way," Plumage said. "It's the only birth defect known to man that is 100 percent preventable. If a woman does not drink alcohol (while pregnant), then it doesn't happen."
Mother uses story to spotlight fetal alcohol syndrome
By DIANE COCHRANOf The Gazette Staff
Jill Plumage never imagined she would be recognized as an expert on fetal alcohol syndrome. "Isn't that ironic?" asked Plumage, who is the FAS coordinator on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. "The one thing in my life I am considered an expert for is the one thing in my life I would change."
Plumage's son has fetal alcohol syndrome."He was born drunk," she said. "They put him on my stomach, and I could smell alcohol on his breath."
Still, she didn't stop drinking. She interpreted her doctor's advice to improve her breast milk by drinking beer as a green light to consume massive amounts of alcohol.
"I didn't hear two to three cans of beer a day. I heard two to three cases. I heard two to three fifths," Plumage said. "I was clicking my heels."
When her son was a few months old, Plumage realized she could not care for him, and her sister adopted him. Fifteen years passed before she was able to talk about it, even to herself.Now Plumage travels around Montana and the nation telling her story.
On Tuesday, she spoke at a Billings workshop sponsored by Parents, Let's Unite for Kids."I'm not a professional. I'm just a little, humble Indian woman from Fort Belknap," she said. "I have a 30-year-old son who is FAS. I'm not proud to stand here and tell you that, but I am proud to tell you my son asked me to come and tell you about it."
In her youth, Plumage went to alcohol treatment 22 times. She met and fell in love with her son's father in one of those programs.After being released from treatment, the couple started drinking again and didn't stop when Plumage discovered she was pregnant.
She remembers feeling her baby move inside her when she was sober and how he fell still when she drank. She would tell his father that he was sleeping, and when the movement resumed, usually about three days after she sobered up, she would say the baby was awake again."I didn't know in my head, but, in my heart, I knew," Plumage said. "My baby didn't go to sleep. My baby passed out. Our baby didn't wake up. Our baby came to."
When Plumage was eight months pregnant, the baby's father was killed in an alcohol-related car crash. She was prescribed Librium to help deal with the grief.
"That's all I did was drink whiskey and eat Librium," she said.
She sobered up about three days before going into labor, but the baby was still intoxicated. She watched him go through withdrawals in a hospital incubator.Despite his obvious birth defects, no one said a word to her about her alcohol abuse.With the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, Plumage stopped drinking on July 4, 1978. She earned an undergraduate degree from what was then Eastern Montana College and moved back to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, where she was eventually appointed as the tribe's fetal alcohol syndrome coordinator.
In addition to her speaking engagements, Plumage helps coordinate a University of New Mexico study about FAS on the reservation. To date, the study has tested about 100 children for FAS, and 17 have been diagnosed with the disorder.Nationwide, FAS occurs in about 1 out of every 1,000 births, Plumage said."If we have 17 out of 100, what's going to happen to our next generation?" Plumage asked. "The only way I know to make change is to be honest."Her hope -- and her son's hope -- is that telling their story will prevent other women from drinking while they are pregnant.
"It only happens one way," Plumage said. "It's the only birth defect known to man that is 100 percent preventable. If a woman does not drink alcohol (while pregnant), then it doesn't happen."
# posted by Kari @ 8:33 AM 
