Women who indulge in drug abuse are at a high-risk of developing multiple social and health-related challenges, but when it comes to pregnant women, the challenges may get intensified to a greater level. Prolonged drug abuse during pregnancy can negatively affect the earliest stages of fetal development leaving long-lasting detrimental prenatal and postnatal effects that extend into early childhood and beyond.
A woman who abuses drugs during the gestation period may deliver a child with serious congenital anomalies. Such a child may also be prone to addiction due to prolonged exposure to drugs while in the womb.
Additionally, use of some substances can increase the risk of fetal miscarriage and cause migraine headaches, seizures or high blood pressure in the mother, which have an adverse impact on the infant. Importantly, woman who abuse tobacco, marijuana or prescription painkillers face a two- to threefold risk of delivering stillborn babies.
Drug abuse in pregnant American women
According to the 2013 U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 5.4 percent of all pregnant women reported illicit drug use, while 9.4 percent reported alcohol use during the period. While the rates of alcohol consumption during pregnancy have decreased considerably in the last 10-15 years due to greater public health awareness regarding the harmful effects of alcohol, many pregnant women refrain from reporting their drug abuse to doctors due to the fear of losing their baby to child protective services.
However, the introduction of painkillers, such as oxycodone and other opioids, has triggered a growing trend of prescription drug abuse among many moms-to-be in America. Apart from opioids, pregnant women have been found to seek professional detox treatment for other illicit drugs, such as marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine, tranquilizers and sedatives, and hallucinogens and PCP.
How does drug abuse affect infants?
Drug abuse during pregnancy can hinder normal development of the baby’s brain. The degree of disruption depends on multiple factors, such as chemical properties of the drug, number of doses, time and duration of exposure to the drug, etc. However, not all the disastrous effects of psychoactive drugs can be seen in the short-term. In fact, several anomalies remain hidden in the body and may surface as late as adolescence.
Heroin withdrawal during pregnancy may not be life-threatening for a healthy woman, but the unborn child certainly faces a high risk of fetal death. Besides, women who remain untreated for prescription opioid abuse may give birth to children exposed to acute opioid abstinence syndrome, a condition affecting opioid-exposed infants, with symptoms such as defects in the central nervous system (CNS), as well as in the respiratory, autonomic and gastrointestinal systems. Also, studies have shown a link between pregnant women using codeine in the first three months of pregnancy and congenital heart defects in infants.
Prenatal exposure to alcohol can cause fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which is the major nonhereditary cause of intellectual disability in the Western hemisphere. As many as five of 100 FASD-affected children in the U.S. manifest symptoms such as retarded growth, facial deformities, dysfunctional central nervous system and impaired intellect.
Leading a drug-free life
Screening for drug abuse and addiction should be a mandatory stage of obstetric care. Moreover, early in the first trimester, all pregnant women should be routinely checked for alcohol, tobacco and drug use, including nonmedical use of prescription opioids and other over-the-counter medications. Above all, doctors, medical practitioners and health care providers must adopt an unbiased, nonjudgmental and caring approach to obtain a comprehensive information regarding any instance of drug abuse among pregnant women.