Illegal Drugs during Pregnancy

Illegal Drugs during Pregnancy

 
There are a lot of studies that have evaluated the effects of the consumption of drugs during pregnancy. However these studies can be confusing, because they tend to group up all types of users, independent from what types of drugs are used and the amounts. The lifestyle of the mother also influences on the degree of risk for the baby, which complicates the information even more so. For example it is more likely that women that take drugs are less nurtured than other women; these women also generally come from social economic groups with less income and tend to have a greater incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. All of these factors, independent from the fact that a woman takes drugs or not, can cause problems in the pregnancy and to the baby.

The following list contains the essential about the use of several illegal drugs and the effects they have for the baby in the womb:

  • Marijuana: This is the drug that is most commonly taken during pregnancy. The data about marijuana are controversial, but they seem to indicate that pregnant women that smoke it have a higher risk on average of giving birth before time or having babies with low weight.
  • Cocaine and Crack: In pregnant women, consuming crack or cocaine can lead to acute hypertension, heart attack or even sudden death. Even more so, the consumption of cocaine increases pre term delivery, abrupt placenta, and growth problems. It can also cause neurological problems of behavior and convulsions.
  • Narcotics and Opiate, which includes Heroine, Morphine, Codeine, Methadone, and Demerol: An addiction to narcotics increases the risk for the mother and the baby. These drugs are directly associated with fetal growth problems, pre term delivery, fetal death and reduced head size. Perhaps the most important is that an addiction to narcotics puts the newborn at higher risk of suffering complications, which include death, due to the abstinence of the drug. If you are addicted to narcotics of opiates, you can minimize the effects of these drugs by getting into a treatment program from the beginning of your pregnancy.
  • This does not mean that an occasional use of medications that have narcotics in therapeutic doses cause problems. To give you an example of this, if you have to go through dental surgery while you are pregnant, it would be perfectly acceptable to use this type of medications for a limited amount of time to control the pain associated with this procedure.
  • Amphetamines and other stimulants: These substances have not been as widely used as other illegal drugs and because of this there is less information about their collateral effects during pregnancy. It is known that they decrease the appetite, which can cause poor fetal growth. Besides this, there is evidence that shows that it can increase the risk of fetal growth problems such as in reduced head size, abrupt placenta, fetal shock or death.

 

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