The bartender set the glass on the bar in front of [Kathy] Kidd-Wuest. She took a sip.

The drink was good and strong. Kidd-Wuest finished it and ordered another. Then another. She wasn’t the kind to get cut off; liquor made her sleepy and giggly, not loud or obnoxious.

The bartender kept them coming.

Kidd-Wuest had five drinks in all. They cost $2.50 a pop. That seemed a bargain. But 18 years later, Kidd-Wuest still is paying the price for drinking during the first five months of her pregnancy.

So is her son, now 18, who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome.

This excerpt from Cheryl Sherry's article, "Mother’s risks last child's lifetime: Wisconsin's tendency to binge drink key in high rate of fetal alcohol cases," is part of a daring series on alcohol in Wisconsin by our local award-winning Post-Crescent newspaper.

The mother didn't know that she was pregnant when she swallowed those drinks. "It was the worst feeling in the world, of pure guilt," she said about when she learned she was pregnant. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a terrible affliction that is given so unnecessarily to thousands of infants. Something like 60% of them will end up in prison. The health and social impact of this dread disorder are staggering.

I have seen too many tragedies that began with alcohol. Accidents, death, disease, and many times children are the victims. Why not give up drinking today and stay in control of your body and mind?
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