Addiction is a chronic, progressive disorder that prompts compulsive behavior in the user. If you don’t treat this issue quickly, then you may end up experiencing harmful side effects, like depression, anxiety, relapse, etc., as well.
So, how do pregnant women bode with drug abuse during the neonatal period?
Well, like any other disease, using drugs during the pregnancy timeline can be pretty risky for an individual. It may damage the brain function of the newborn and affect their natural thinking procedure to some extent. Besides, it might also cause depression in the pregnant woman, which isn’t healthy at all for the baby.
Thus, if you’re suffering from drug abuse, we’ll ask you to go through the carefully-crafted treatment procedure provided by Pinnacle Recovery. This way, you can avoid the risk of relapses and go through a healthy pregnancy period altogether.
Drug Abuse And Pregnancy – The Risks
The pregnancy period is, indeed, pretty tricky when it comes to the health of a woman. Even a healthier one can put substantial physical and psychological pressure on the individual. Therefore, if you use drugs during this period, it might affect your health even more.
However, the effect of drug abuse does not only fall upon the mother. It can affect their kid as well. Here’s what you need to know about it.
How Does Drug Abuse Affect The Mother?
For a mother, the effect of drug abuse will be similar to almost any other person. For instance, it can –
- Damage your liver and increase the risk of developing liver cirrhosis or alcoholic hepatitis disease.
- Affect your brain cells and decrease their overall regeneration efficiency. According to a report, women are more susceptible to this issue than men.
- Increase the amount of bad cholesterol in your body and boost the risk of coronary or ischemic heart disease and other related ailments.
- Moderate to heavy drinking or smoking marijuana can also increase the likelihood of breast, liver, and stomach cancer.
- Drug abuse can also increase the amount of fat production in your body. Therefore, if you aren’t careful enough, you may also become obese at some point.
Many people also use drugs to escape through the phases of anxiety and depression. However, it, in turn, increases the prominence of these issues even more.
How Does Drug Abuse Affect The Baby?
During the pregnancy period, whatever you are eating will be transferred to your baby as well. For example, if you are intaking tobacco or alcohol, it will travel through the placenta and enter your child’s body.
Hence, if you keep drinking or eating harmful substances, it may end up causing severe problems. Here’s what it may experience during the neonatal phase –
- If you are taking nicotine or tobacco during your pregnancy, it may cause behavioral problems, such as ADHD, in the baby.
- For a marijuana abuser, the baby could potentially be susceptible to visual perceptual abilities, attention impairments, and delinquency.
- Drinking alcohol may contribute to the child’s lower intelligence, poor growth of mental and physical health, attention issues, etc.
- If you are taking cocaine, it may affect the intelligence of your baby and negatively impact their time management skills.
- Finally, opioids can affect your baby’s memory, attention, behavioral issues, including hyperactivity and ADHD.
Abusing drugs during the latter stage of pregnancy can also result in a miscarriage. Due to this reason, doctors tend to advise people to avoid drugs prior to planning pregnancy.
How To Prevent Drug Addiction?
Please keep reading to find out more about it.
- Understand the development phases of substance abuse and stop using them from the get-go. Don’t take medications that you’ve not been asked to.
- Stay away from people who’re trying to tempt you to drink alcohol, smoke marijuana, or do something else.
- Do not take drugs to escape from depression, anxiety, or something as such. Instead, make sure to seek the help of a professional and take care of your mental health.
- Follow a proper diet structure to improve your health. Also, create or follow a dream to keep your mind off of negative thoughts or something similar.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
1. At What Stage Of Pregnancy Does Smoking Affect The Baby?
Smoking can affect you and your child at almost any stage of the pregnancy period. You may also end up giving birth too early and have a premature baby if you aren’t careful enough.
2. How Do Drugs Affect The Mother During Pregnancy?
Taking addictive drugs can increase your risk of anemia, heart infection, hepatitis, and other skin ailments. Consuming too much alcohol can also lead to liver cirrhosis and alcoholic fatty liver disease for the mother.
3. What Are The Long-Term Effects Of Drugs On The Babies?
Birth defects, in essence, are the most prominent issues that occur in a baby due to drug abuse. Aside from this, it may also impair their growth, alter their natural brain development, and impact their cognitive behavior.
The Bottom Line!
As mentioned before, pregnancy is, indeed, a risky period, both for the mother and for her child. Therefore, if you want to go through the most critical phase of your life successfully, you’ll have to be as careful as possible.
If you aren’t capable enough of leaving your drug habits, you can also seek professional help.
It might take you some time, but you will definitely pull through the whole fiasco pretty efficiently. Taking the help of a professional might also be beneficial for avoiding relapse or something as such altogether.
Isreal olabanji a dental assistant and public health professionals and has years of experience in assisting the dentist with all sorts of dental issues.
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