Unborn Children at Risk for Exposure to Opiates

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on February 17, 2015 under Opiate Abuse, Prescription Drugs | Comments are off for this article

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a startling figure – more than 25 percent of all women who could become pregnant in the near future are taking prescription painkillers. This means that potential mothers could already be addicted to pills like OxyContin, Percocet or Vicodin. Since the withdrawal symptoms and cravings are so intense for these medications, mothers are more likely to abuse them while they are pregnant, exposing their unborn children to powerful and dangerous drugs before they ever take a breath of air.

While these drugs are meant for those suffering from chronic or acute pain, and only supposed to be provided for by a physician, the appetite for these pills is so intense that addicts have gotten around current restrictions. Sometimes a person with a valid pain issue and a valid prescription will sell their pills on the black market, prices can be as high as $100 per pill. Other times an addict will fake an injury or get copies of phony X-rays or a fake MRI. Once presented to a physician they can then acquire the pills necessary to fuel their drug habit. Other times doctors begin writing prescriptions to addicts who have no need for the heroin-like painkillers – essentially becoming drug dealers.

However a person gets a hold of these pills, it is clear that future generations are poised to feel the effects of this epidemic. Mothers who are dependent on or abuse narcotics or any other opiate-based painkiller put their unborn children at risk for birth defects and physical withdrawal pains from the drug.

Children who receive drugs prenatally have to go through a period of withdrawal upon being born. This means that they have become physically dependent to the drug and now that they are no longer receiving the drug through their mother they have to overcome severe withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms from narcotic painkillers include; vomiting, diarrhea, body aches and insomnia. These symptoms are often too much for grown adults to handle, let alone day-old infants.

This study is important because many pregnancies are not planned. Oftentimes when a person is leading a life that involves regular drug use they are unaware of how their actions can affect themselves and others.