Powerful FASD campaign by Nunavut government warns pregnant women to 'never drink alcohol'

Last week, we wrote about the LCBO’s “Baby Bump” campaign that aimed to raise awareness of the risks associated with drinking during pregnancy.

Its promotion of “alcohol-free pregnancy" was met with some criticism, as some worried that the campaign shamed educated women choosing to occasionally sip on wine.

A new anti-drinking campaign, this time launched by the Government of Nunavut, is even more dramatic in its imagery and message.

Two posters — one in English and one in Inuktitut — are telling women to steer clear of all types and amounts of alcohol during pregnancy.

The posters, designed by Atiigo Media and inspired by a similar campaign out of Russia in 2012, have an image of a women drinking out of a bottle that directly leads to her unborn child.

"Baby or the bottle: Pregnant women should never drink alcohol," the poster reads.

While some immediately found the posters offensive, a strong majority appears to support the powerful message.

“Looking at this picture, you really feel bad for the unborn babies,” Nunavut resident Gary Arnaquq told CBC News. “It’s very worrisome.”

“Anything we consume goes to their blood so I support this,” said Suzie Muckpah. “We always have to choose wisely: alcohol or the child. We need to think of our child and choose which one we want.”

"If their spouses boyfriends or hubbies can only cut down drinking to support her, maybe they wouldn’t drink at all. It’s about helping out each other, when one person tries to quit or cut down, it’s hard when your spouse isn’t supporting you," Poasie Joamie wrote on Facebook.

"That is a great message — it’s important that we support our family members and friends to build healthier, stronger communities," Atiigo Media responded.

On the CBC News Facebook page, where comments were overwhelmingly supportive of the campaign, people called for the campaign to be translated into multiple languages and used across the country.

The main criticism: Women who struggle with addiction will only be shamed by posters like this, not encouraged to get help.

"It’s been proved that fear mongering and shaming is useless. Posters that actually direct people where to get help would be much, much more effective. Having programs that deal with trauma and the resulting natural and understandable self medicating would be a start. This poster is juvenile and will have zero impact on the problem and offers zero solutions," wrote Facebook user Shar Valerious.

According to the CBC, it is believed that Nunavut has a high rate of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), although statistics are unavailable, partly because of the difficulty of diagnosing the preventable disease.

The umbrella term of FASD includes physical, mental, behavioural and learning disabilities “with lifelong implications,”

According to Pauktuutit, Children with FASD “often display such characteristics as extreme hyperactivity, aggressiveness, poor judgment, and speech and language difficulties.”