Substance abuse carries heavy social and physical costs, including long-term effects on fetal development and cardiovascular health. Navigating withdrawal and drug testing requires expert health insights.
Around 4 percent of women in the United States take illegal drugs while pregnant, the March of Dimes states. A number of pregnant women who take illegal drugs also use legal drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol. All these drugs cross the placenta and can affect the fetus prenatally, causing withdrawal symptoms at birth.
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Approximately 5.9 percent of pregnant women admit to using illicit drugs or nonprescribed narcotics during pregnancy, according to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Many more women take prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI, antidepressants.
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Women who are addicted to heroin are often given methadone, a synthetic narcotic, to take instead of heroin. Methadone withdrawal is a common cause of withdrawal in newborns. The majority of mothers who take methadone in pregnancy will give birth to an addicted baby.
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