PREGNANT WOMAN in Scotland are to be told to abstain completely from drinking as medics warned that the nation has a huge and hidden population of sufferers of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

The government has severely underestimated the numbers of children born with the syndrome in Scotland and may be ill-equipped to deal with the real number of cases, according to Scottish drug and alcohol experts.

Research into the actual numbers of cases of children born with FAS or Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), which is less severe, is expected to start later on in the year and experts expect it will reveal more cases than ever previously recorded.

Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders cause a wide range of symptoms, including stunted growth, poor cognitive skills, bad memory and damage to the nervous system.

Shona Robison, minister for public Health, is behind the drive to stop young women damaging their babies. She said: "Advice from the Scottish government is clear: women who are pregnant or trying to conceive should abstain from drinking alcohol to minimise the risk of their baby developing Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.

"Scotland's rate of many alcohol-related conditions is rising in direct correlation to consumption and we could be storing up a health timebomb for the future."

The warning about the large and hidden numbers of sufferers of the sysndrome coincides with the announcement of a new campaign to persuade pregnant women to completely abstain from alcohol.

Dr Maggie Watts, of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams (SAADAT) has already done work on measuring the numbers of cases of FAS in Ayr. She found that Ayr's population of suffers was equal to the number of suffers thought to be in Scotland as a whole. This proves, she says, that methods used to assess patients are inadequate.

She said: "We don't have a robust method of identifying Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. My gut instinct is that we are going to find more children when we start looking, but I don't think we can start looking until we have services in place to help the sufferers we find."

She added: "Currently, health services are not required to diagnose it and often it is misdiagnosed, meaning that children are coming through who aren't able to maximise their potential because they're not being given the appropriate level of therapy."

The study, done under the auspices of the government's Alcohol Evidence Group, closes this week. Medics hope to identify the effects alcohol has on babies at different stages of pregnancy.

Alcohol Focus Scotland has also announced its plans for a campaign to warn women of the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. The campaign will start later on in the year.

Jack Law, chief executive, said: "It is concerning that women's drinking has been rising over the past decade and this trend has clear implications for women who become pregnant.

"The prevalence of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in Scotland is still unclear. The number of recorded cases is low but this may be because health professionals are either not recognising or misdiagnosing the disorder."

One 30-year-old sufferer, who asked us not to reveal his name, urged women to watch how much they drink. He is currently unemployed, after being forced out of his job by bullies who verbally and physically abused him, and has extreme difficulties in relating to people, meaning he can't forge friendships.

He said: "It's something that stays with your child for life. It will give you all kinds of problems."