Drugs and pregnancy

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

The "try the unknown" craze among young people is increasingly leading to disappointing results. Out of idleness, enraged adolescents play with death, not thinking that life was given to a person not at all in order to experience it. Someone takes up the needle, someone smokes weed, but everyone is confident in their strength and perseverance of character: I'll try it once and that's it, that's all. But it doesn't work: then you want more and more, again and again …

In recent years, drug addiction in Russia has become an epidemic. Often, even young girls who will later give birth take drugs. Experts suggest that this happens to every tenth pregnant woman while carrying a child. Terrible statistics drugs and pregnancyseemingly incompatible things, but several types of drug addiction are known.

Hashishism

Hashish is made from cannabis pollen, and marijuana, the most common drug, is made from cannabis leaves. The narcotic substances tetrahydrocannabinols contained in cannabis, when ingested by a pregnant woman, lead to intrauterine growth retardation. The more the expectant mother smokes marijuana cigarettes, the less weight and head circumference her baby will have. In addition, such a mother is at risk of premature birth.

Cocaine

Cocaine is administered intravenously, sniffed, smoked ("crack"), and inhaled. It causes an adrenaline rush, which is why euphoria occurs. But simultaneously with euphoria, blood pressure rises, vasospasm occurs. In pregnant women, the metabolism is altered, so cocaine is removed from the body with great difficulty and the risk of poisoning with it increases. Getting through the placenta into the blood of the fetus, cocaine causes him to have vasospasm, a strong heartbeat, and increases blood pressure. At the same time, blood circulation in the uterus is disrupted, placental insufficiency develops, oxygen access to the child's body is difficult. So hypoxia occurs, the fetus suffocates. With prolonged hypoxia, the physical and mental development of the child proceeds more slowly than expected, the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and placental abruption increases. If the mother uses large doses of cocaine, the newborn may die of a stroke, or the child will develop malformations of the urinary tract.

Use of amphetamines

These drugs work similarly to cocaine: they cause agitation, insomnia, and loss of appetite. Amphetamine users are usually malnourished and have little health care. This type of drug addiction is especially dangerous for pregnant women, because due to nutritional deficiencies and circulatory disorders in the uterus, the mental and physical development of the fetus is delayed. A child under the influence of amphetamines seems half asleep, does not suckle well, and loses weight quickly.

Heroinism

Heroin is a powerful drug. They resort to it, having tried marijuana, cocaine. In case of an overdose of heroin, respiratory arrest occurs. If a pregnant woman regularly uses it, the child is born a drug addict and experiences, like the mother, all the horrors of withdrawal. In addition, heroin causes premature birth and fetal hypoxia. Such babies develop slowly, they have sudden death syndrome 20 times more often.

LSD use

A synthetic hallucinogen, which was created for the treatment of mental disorders, is also adopted by drug addicts. It is called an "elite" antibiotic because it is expensive and has significantly fewer consequences. There is an opinion (not yet confirmed) that LSD causes mutations, premature birth, miscarriages, placental abruption, etc. LSD is often used together with marijuana, cocaine or amphetamines, which negates its relative "safety". Irreparable harm to health is caused drugs and pregnancy during this period is unpredictable.

Substance abuse

Addicts usually inhale organic solvents that are part of paints, resins, varnishes. Most often, toluene is used. With prolonged use, intelligence decreases, atrophy of the cerebral cortex develops. There is evidence that the "hobby" of the expectant mother with toluene "rewards" her child with developmental defects characteristic of the children of alcoholic mothers: flattening of the bridge of the nose, narrow upper lip, fusion of eyelids in the corners of the eyes, etc. The physical and mental development of such children is delayed, they have mental disorders. It is not uncommon for these babies to be born with very small heads or very tiny eyes, and they often have hydrocephalus (a disorder in the structure of the brain).

Pregnancy and drugs are incompatible concepts

Almost all drugs cause a delay in the physical and mental development of the fetus, and some threaten its life, provoke miscarriage, all kinds of malformations. What does the fetus feel during the mother's drug intoxication or during the "withdrawal" she is experiencing? Most likely the same as the mother. Narcotic substances pass through the placenta into the blood of the fetus and cause changes in its psyche. A mother using drugs runs the risk of getting not only a physically weak child with a "programmed" mental retardation, and a mental handicap. Unfortunately, the constant "bombardment" of the child's body with substances toxic for him is not limited to drugs. Their use is usually accompanied by smoking and drinking. As a result, the effect of malicious influence on the fetus is multiplied many times over.

What to do?

It's hard to convince that drugs and pregnancy not compatible. And the one who takes drugs, it is also difficult to refuse this potion. After all, drug addiction is not a whim, it is a disease. However, it is the responsibility of the pregnant woman to be aware of the harm she is doing to her baby. First of all, she should stop taking drugs. But this must be done under the supervision of a narcologist - a self-induced withdrawal syndrome can adversely affect the health of the child. If it is impossible to give up drugs altogether, you should at least reduce their dose. This will reduce the risk of developing irreversible consequences for the child. When taking amphetamines, special attention should be paid to good nutrition, with cocainism - to a sufficient supply of oxygen to the child's body. You can not hide your addiction to drugs from the obstetrician-gynecologist, who observes the progress of the pregnancy.

In Russia, unfortunately, pregnant women do not undergo toxicological examinations, so the expectant mother must tell him about it herself.

Don't risk your life, it's so short. And take care, if not of yourself, then of your offspring.