New data from the New York State Department of Health shows that the number of babies born with heroin addictions is at an alarming level. In 2014 alone, 34 babies were born with some kind of opiate addiction in Broome County, which makes an 180% increase since 2009. And Broone County’s population is less than 200,000.
Heroin Still Poses A Great Danger to Our Community
When women use heroin while pregnant, babies are born with a quarter of a regular newborn’s weight. Some babies don’t make it through the pregnancy, and those that do suffer through addiction for months. These newborns go through extraordinary pain and withdrawal.
Health physicians have a single recommendation for women going through heroin addiction: prevent pregnancy at all costs. The use of contraceptives and birth control is the best thing that these women can do, because having children while being an addict is a cruel thing to do.
If A Pregnant Woman Can’t Avoid Pregnancy, She Should Get Treatment Immediately
If a woman with a heroin addiction is inevitably pregnant, then they should do their best to get help and get sober. Getting treatment can make a difference, even if it’s a small one. Pregnant women even get preference for methadone treatment, offered by united health services hospitals. While this doesn’t eliminate the risk of the baby suffering through withdrawal after being born, it is safer than using throughout the entire pregnancy.
Doctors call these pre-emptive measures ‘harm reduction’. While it cannot guarantee that the baby will have a good quality of life after being born, it can help. In fact, Broone County is pledging $260,000 into a program to give a facility eight to ten new beds for opiate-addicted mothers. These funds will also ensure that the mothers get proper case management, day care, treatment for the mothers. It would also cover any and every need that the baby could have. The county is devoted to giving safe and clean housing for recovering new mothers and their child.
Pregnancy and Drugs: What is the Effect of Prescription Drugs on Newborns
The conclusion of a new study reveals that the link between autism and anti-depressants is definitely threatening. Anick Berard, of the University of Montreal, surveyed data of 145,456 pregnancies. The data showed that while genetics and environment play a role in the incidence of autism, anti-depressants have weight in that conversation as well.
Dr. Berard expressed that taking anti-depressants during the second or trimester of pregnancy can double the risk of the child being diagnosed with autism by the time they become seven years old. If the mother takes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, the risk is especially high.
Depression Will Be the Second Leading Cause of Death by 2020
According to the WHO, depression will be the second highest cited cause of death by the year 2020. This means that anti-depressants may be further developed and become even more widely prescribed. It’s also possible that a strain is developed for use during and throughout pregnancy.
It’s not yet known if any anti-depressants currently in development will reduce the risks for autism in the children. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, surely inspires further study into the connection between anti-depressants used during pregnancy and physical and mental disorders in children.
What About the Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy?
Studies haven’t revealed significant information on the effect of marijuana use by pregnant women on their children. Figures do show that pregnant women who use drugs have a higher chance of making marijuana their choice drug since it isn’t associated with as high health risks for the baby as other drugs.
However, when smoked, marijuana has an inevitable effect on the lungs. Smoking TCH exposes users to the ingestion of carbon monoxide and tar, which can remain in the lungs. The baby naturally depends on the mother for everything, from breathing to eating to merely existing. Even if the effect isn’t detrimental, it’s not entirely free of faults.
The use of marijuana during pregnancy has been under the eye of the scientific community since the 1960s, and besides obvious effects, there has been little to show negative effects of it on the children. That doesn’t mean it’s not free of risks.
Prenatal Exposure to Marijuana Can Cost Your Baby A Trip to the NICU
A study conducted in Australia took data from 420,000 live births and concluded that newborns that were exposed to pot prenatally had a higher risk for neonatal intensive care unit admission. The babies also had unnatural responses or behaviors during the newborn period, which suggests the chance of withdrawal or some kind of toxicity. Prenatally exposed children had a tendency to be more irritable, and less responsive to calming. They also had sleep cycle disturbances and a tendency to cry more.
Bottom Line: Don’t Drink Alcohol, Smoke Weed, Shoot Heroin or Do Coke While Pregnant
You’ve heard it before, and science backs it up. Alcohol can cause birth defects, physical, mental and behavioral, in new babies. Cocaine can cause lower birth weight and defects in height. Marijuana isn’t too dangerous, but it still poses a threat. Heroin is just bad news for newborns.
