Drugs include a variety of natural and chemical substances ingested to alter the chemical balance of the brain in order to produce a predetermined effect. Drugs fall into three categories.
The first category of drugs is legal and includes not only cough suppressants, decongestants and antihistamines but also alcohol, caffeine and tobacco. The second category are those drugs, which are prescribed by a doctor such as certain benzodiazepine, opioid or barbiturate products. The final category of drugs are those which are illegal in most Western countries, among which are the class of hallucinogenic chemicals, cocaine and heroin.
Taking drugs, whether they are legal, prescribed or illegal, while you are pregnant can affect both the pregnancy and baby. Each class of drug has different effects on the body and the fetus.
There are two types of drug dependence, physical and psychological. A physical dependency such as caffeine induces withdrawal symptoms in the user after they cease taking the drug.
People who have physical dependencies are usually not considered drug addicts or drug abusers, but the effects of the drug on the body, especially during pregnancy, can be tremendous and difficult to give up.
Users of drugs with psychological dependencies have an emotional need for the drug. Such drugs are much harder to give up and so their effects can be more destructive during pregnancy.
Many drugs, whether tobacco or cocaine are appetite suppressants and so many drug users have nutritional deficiencies. As an expectant mother you will leave yourself open to complications such as maternal anemia, fetal growth retardation and preeclampsia.
You may also be damaging the baby growing inside you and many babies are born with congenital abnormalities and are developmentally affected. Depending on the drug used, some babies may become addicted to the drug before birth.
Drug abuse is usually consistent with a high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and other infectious diseases. There is also a high incidence of hepatitis, endocarditis and Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) among users of intravenous drugs.
Those diseases can lead to serious complications for both the mother and the baby during pregnancy. This is exacerbated because many women with drug problems are unlikely to seek prenatal care.
As a consequence, there are considerable gaps in the knowledge of drug abuse during pregnancy. What understanding we do have comes from cases of exposure to drugs before the pregnancy is discovered. Until more data is collected it is hard to determine the exact effects of specific drugs on pregnancy.
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