Addiction and pregnancy does not go very well hand in hand most of the time. Yeah, we are not talking about your several bouts of cravings and giving into tasty and healthy food or even your absolute addiction to watch only baby videos. We are talking about addiction to drugs be it legal or illegal, alcohol, nicotine, and even caffeine.
If you are planning to get pregnant or you already are and you want a hale and hearty chubby baby then it is imperative for you to stay away from all the above mentioned substances and their abuse period. These substances are harmful to fetal development and can have lasting effects on your child and its health. Remember whatever substance you are used to abuse if you keep abusing it while you are pregnant then the little one growing inside you would also be abusing and using it through you. These habits of substance abuse may lead to heart attacks, respiratory failure, strokes, and seizures for you too.
Practicing substance abuse during pregnancy can not only increase the chances of birth defects, premature births, underweight babies, and stillborn births exponentially but also affect your child’s memory, behavior, and attentiveness causing severe failure of your child’s cognitive performance and information processing abilities. Here is a list of different drugs and their effects if used during pregnancy by the mother.
Cocaine or Methamphetamine
It enhances your risk of miscarriage early in your pregnancy and may cause pre-term labor in the later stages with low birth weights, irritability, and feeding difficulties among the babies who are exposed to it.
Marijuana
This increases you risk of premature birth along with a low birth weight baby. It also delays the child’s natural developments and babies seem to suffer from withdrawal symptoms followed by excessive crying and trembling.
Ecstasy
There are long term side effects of this substance and can affect your baby’s motor developments (coordination and movements).
Heroin and strong painkillers
Heroines and painkillers can have the same effect on you and your baby if you consume them during pregnancy. They can both lead to miscarriage, premature birth, and stillborn. If you are an addict try not to quit it overnight. Instead, take medical help to quit it, because it is the safest way. During pregnancy abusing these substances may also affect your baby’s respiratory system, and your bay may go through a severe case of withdrawal symptom. As your child will grow the effect of these substances may linger and develop behavioral problems in him.
PCP & LSD
Both these substances are hallucinogens which can make the user behave violently even causing harm to the baby. Apart from that using these substances during pregnancy can lead to low birth weight, brain damage, withdrawal symptoms, lethargy, and poor muscle control in the bay.
Nicotine
Cigarette smoking or other ways of nicotine consumption during pregnancy can cause severe illness that can lead to premature death of your baby. It also results in the babies developing heart defects, septal defects and other congenital heart defects which reduce the life expectancies, and lifetime disabilities. You are more likely to have placenta problems causing in malnourishment of your fetus which further results in low birth weights in your babies, premature delivery, and babies with cleft palates.
Alcohol and Caffeine
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can develop Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). These can cause abnormal facial disorder, growth deficiency, central nervous system problems, and physical disabilities in your baby. Caffeine consumption is although legal since it is prevalent foods such as chocolates, coffee, and sodas should however, be limited. It is still a very controversial substance when it comes to pregnancy period usage, however, it must be regulated and controlled as it results in high blood toxicity.
Legal Drugs and Prescribed Medicine
It is necessary to monitor and regulate the use of prescribed legal drugs during pregnancy, although due to the ethical reasons tests and experiments have not been run on the effects of prescribed drugs on pregnant women yet. However, you must consult your doctor about the safety and dosage of your prescribed drugs during and after pregnancy. Avoid every temptation of self-prescribed and over the counter legal drugs.
These facts will help you understand the effects of different drugs on you and your baby if used during pregnancy, so that you can make the right choice as quickly as possible. If you think that controlling your addiction is a major problem that you cannot help yourself with, then do not hesitate to take professional help. This one small step will ensure the safety and health of the larger picture of your baby’s life.
Photo Credit By: mirror.co.uk
