The Effect of Heroin on Pregnant Mothers - Essay Example

1 Fetal Addiction The Effect of Heroin on Pregnant Mothers Order No: 178728 No: of pages: 6 Premium – 6530 A Woman’s choice to use drugs during pregnancy is a choice she makes under the powerful influence called “Addiction”. Addiction to any type of drug is harmful and more so, in the light of pregnant mothers whose behavior under the influence of substance abuse, has severe health consequences for their new born child and which can lead to a condition called “fetal addiction”. Many young women today do not realize the responsibility ahead of them and stray into drug dens and by the time they know it, they become totally addicted or hooked to them. Once this happens, there is a sort of craving within them and it is extremely hard to kick this bad habit. Drugs such as Heroin, Marijuana, Brown sugar and others have adverse and harmful side affects and it is doubly harmful for any pregnant mother as it spoils her health. Once addicted to a drug, a person finds it extremely difficult to get over it and even if he or she Fetal… 2 tries, the withdrawal symptoms are excruciating with cramping of the stomach and chest muscles. Affects of Heroin: Many pregnant, addicted, substance abusing mothers suffer tremendously when they go through withdrawal symptoms during later pregnancy and child birth. Initially when the drug is taken by a person, it makes them feel heavy and drowsy. They are hardly conscious of their surroundings and very often go into delirium. (Bauer, C.R., et al. September, 2005) Heroin affects the nervous system, making the person’s mental responses slow and clouded. Their breathing becomes heavy and slow and the Cardiac function slows down very much, sometimes to the point of death. Withdrawal Symptoms: Withdrawal symptoms are extremely difficult to go through. During this period, the mother experiences, extreme craving for the drug, and if left alone, can use it once again. The mother undergoing these symptoms is irrational and exhibits irritability. She becomes moody and throws a lot of frustration around. She has sleep abnormalities and Fetal… 3 most of the time, go into spasms of pain which include convulsions. She also experiences diarrhea and her fever shoots up alarmingly. The addicted pregnant mother experiences all this, in addition to severe hormonal imbalance which adversely affects the growing fetus in the mother’s womb. The results of such an experience, is fatal to the unborn child and may damage the fetus for life. Treating Addiction: Though it is quite a difficult task to treat addiction, yet there are ways and means that a person can get over his or her addiction. Treatment can be done in two ways. The person can be treated as an out – patient or in the very severe cases it is better to treat the addiction if she is an in- patient. For pregnant mothers addicted to heroin, it is better for them to be treated as in – patients because they can be always under the watchful eyes of the physician or nurse who could help immediately if things did not go quite right. Bad Effects of Drugs on the Fetus: Illicit drugs such as Heroin, cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy and other amphetamines have adverse effects on people using them and worse effects on pregnant mothers. Any drug taken by pregnant women will have an adverse effect not only on their lives but also on Fetal…4 the life of the fetus growing in their womb. In many cases premature delivery is quite common and at times she may get a still born baby. The long term outlook for such babies, are quite bleak when compared to normal growing children. Babies born from drug abusing mothers have low birth weight and are at a heavy risk to other problems such as placental problems, cleft palate, poor growth, smaller head than normal babies, clubfoot, congenital heart defects, and many other such problems. Later on in life, they have learning and behavioral problems with short attention span and poor concentration. They are slow to grasp things and learning suffers miserably. Effects of Heroin on Pregnant Mothers: Women using heroin during pregnancy, put their lives and the life of their baby in jeopardy because the pregnancy entails a lot of complications. The growth of the fetus is very slow and as a result the baby that is born is extremely under weight. Most of the times the placenta ruptures and the baby that is born may be a still- born or a premature baby. Such babies suffer serious health problems that include breathing problems and other major disabilities such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy and other Fetal….5 urinary tract infections and abnormalities. (National Survey of Drug use and mental health, 2005) The use of heroin during pregnancy carries a great risk of birth defects. The child also experiences bad withdrawal symptoms which include fever, sneezing, diarrhea, vomiting, shivering, irritability, constant crying and seizures. Pregnant mothers using shared needles to inject the drug into their muscle or vein are at a high risk of contacting AIDS and passing it on to the child. Another major risk of babies who are exposed to heroin is that of SIDS (McElhatton PR. March 2000): - sudden infant death syndrome. (Klonoff-Cohen, H., and Lam-Kruglick, July 2001) Treatment of Pregnant Mothers Using Heroin: The treatment for pregnant mothers using heroin should not be sudden, but on the other hand it should be slow and gradual, because the fetus is at a high risk of becoming a still born. The mother should get the help of a health care provider, or go for treatment to any drug treatment center. The drug that is used in treatment is Methadone. Though the infant taking Methadone, also experiences withdrawal symptoms, yet they can be treated successfully in the nursery and in fact they progress much better than babies whose mothers continue to consume heroin. Fetal….6 Child psychologist, Dan Price, PhD, who treats pregnant mothers under the influence of drugs, says, “With all drugs, were still trying to understand the long-term damage," (Dan Price, Drugs and Pregnancy, 2002) Conclusion: “Prevention is better than cure” is a famous saying which is very important for our lives. More so, pregnant mothers should be taught to be more responsible because it is not one life that she has to be worried about but two precious lives. At the college level, care should be taken by authorities to highlight the bad influence that drugs like heroin could have on them. They should be advised that heroin is not only very bad for health but extremely bad for the fetus which may be scarred for life. Seminars and lectures could be held where experts come in and give important advice on the harmful affects of heroin and other addictive substances to their health and the great impact it has on the fetus in the womb during pregnancy. Those young people who are addicted to any drug, and who want to go in for a baby, should be advised to stop taking drugs and only then have a child because it is life threatening to both the mother and child. It is better to adhere to the important maxim that says, “Prevention is better than cure” and it is always better to be safe than sorry! References: Klonoff-Cohen, H., and Lam-Kruglick, P. Maternal and Paternal Recreational Drug Use and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, volume 155, number 7, July 2001, pages 765-770. Bauer, C.R., et al. Acute Neonatal Effects of Cocaine Exposure during Pregnancy. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, volume 159, September 2005, pages 824-834. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. Results from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings. Office of Applied Studies, NSDUH Series H-30, DHHS, Publication No. SMA 06-4194, Rockville, MD, 2006. http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332 1169.asp FETAL EFFECTS OF SUBSTANCES OF ABUSE. McElhatton PR. Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology 38.2 (March 2000): p194.  McElhatton PR. The National Teratology Information Service (NTIS), RDTC, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK Read More