Youngsters damaged by their mothers drinking alcohol while pregnant were among guests at a conference in Oxford.

The conference, Moving Ahead, was held at the King's Centre Osney Mead, and coincided with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Day on Tuesday.

Speakers included FASD expert Dr Raja Mukherjee, a consultant psychiatrist with the Surrey Borders Partnership Trust, and Dr Sri Gada, consultant paediatrician at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Organiser Julia Brown said: "When you drink, so does your baby.

"It takes approximately one hour for your body to process each unit of alcohol. It takes three times as long for the alcohol to pass round the system of the baby in the womb and the simple fact is that because of alcohol, children are being brain-damaged for life."

It is estimated that one in 100 babies born in the UK have FASD.

Mrs Brown said: "We called the conference Moving Ahead as we wanted to focus on what we are going to do to help raise awareness and increase support for those affected."

Mrs Brown's adopted nine-year-old daughter Niamh is living proof of the dangers of drinking while pregnant.

Mrs Brown, 37, and her husband Simon, 39, who live near Witney, adopted Niamh when she was one.

Mrs Brown said: "She had global developmental delay, which meant she was slow in doing things for her age, like crawling and walking.

"By the time she entered nursery education and started to mix with other children, it became clear that she was more than just 'behind'."

Niamh was six when she was diagnosed wth FASD.

Mrs Brown said: "Being exposed to alcohol while her body and its organs were still developing in the womb has left her with a catalogue of problems, she is long-sighted, prone to ear infections, and her teeth are not developing properly.

"Poor manipulative skills mean simple things like doing up buttons are very difficult."

The Browns founded the FASD Trust in January 2007. It runs support groups and a telephone helpline, holds training seminars and provides advice on best practice to teachers and medics.