"Rather, it will frighten them away from prenatal care and discourage them from speaking honestly to health care providers who may be able to help" (Worley & Lowery, 2005, ¶ 2). Worley and Lowery (2005) recommend that instead of imprisoning pregnant mothers, drug treatment "works and is much less expensive than imprisoning" them. When pregnant mothers are imprisoned, the state may not only incur delivery charges and charge to care for the newborn, it may also have to pay expenses of foster care. For every $1 spent on the state instead invests to treat the pregnant mother, society will receive a return of $7. Conclusion

In response to the first question considered during this thesis, the researcher finds that effects from drinking alcohol when pregnant may range from and/or include, but not be limited to physical abnormalities; growth retardation; brain damage; death of the fetus. Warnings, the literature finds, do not typically work as noted by the continuation of pregnant women drinking despite warnings on every bottle of alcoholic beverages. What may work with women who drink while pregnant, the literature reviewed for this thesis suggests, is treatment.

To help ensure those who need help to discontinue drinking while pregnant, however, perhaps, the practice should, in a sense, be considered a "crime." The researcher perceives that the currently legal, preventable, hazardous activity of drinking while pregnant may, in fact, constitute a crime as it routinely harms the unborn baby. This "crime," the researcher asserts should not be one that mandates incarceration in a prison or jail; however, but instead one that supports the practice of ordering pregnant women who drink to receive treatment and monitoring during their pregnancy. As the alcohol from the mother's system, when consumed during pregnancy, does not only affect the...

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