How Does the Use of Illegal Drugs Affect the Development of a Baby

More than l% of pregnant women take prescription or nonprescription (over-the-counter) drugs or use social drugs (such as tobacco and alcohol) or illicit drugs at some time during pregnancy, and employ of drugs during pregnancy is increasing. In general, drugs should not be used during pregnancy unless necessary because many tin can impairment the fetus. Less than 2 to 3% of all birth defects result from drugs that are taken to treat a disorder or symptom.

Sometimes drugs are essential for the health of the pregnant woman and the fetus. In such cases, a woman should talk with her doctor or other health care practitioner about the risks and benefits of taking the drug. Before taking whatever drug (including over-the-counter drugs) or dietary supplement (including medicinal herbs), a pregnant woman should consult her health care practitioner. A health care practitioner may recommend that a woman take certain vitamins and minerals during pregnancy.

Drugs taken by a pregnant woman reach the fetus primarily past crossing the placenta, the same route taken by oxygen and nutrients, which are needed for the fetus's growth and development. However, drugs that do not cross the placenta may nevertheless harm the fetus past affecting the uterus or the placenta.

Drugs that a pregnant woman takes during pregnancy can affect the fetus in several ways:

• They tin can alter the office of the placenta, unremarkably by causing blood vessels to narrow (constrict) and thus reducing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the fetus from the mother. Sometimes the upshot is a infant that is underweight and underdeveloped.

• They can likewise touch the fetus indirectly. For example, drugs that lower the mother'south blood force per unit area may reduce blood menstruum to the placenta and thus reduce the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the fetus.

How Drugs Cross the Placenta

Some of the fetus'southward claret vessels are contained in tiny hairlike projections (villi) of the placenta that extend into the wall of the uterus. The mother'due south blood passes through the infinite surrounding the villi (intervillous infinite). Only a thin membrane (placental membrane) separates the mother'due south blood in the intervillous space from the fetus'southward claret in the villi. Drugs in the mother's blood can cross this membrane into blood vessels in the villi and pass through the umbilical cord to the fetus.

How a drug affects a fetus depends on

• The fetus's stage of development

• The force and dose of the drug

• The permeability of the placenta (how hands substances pass through information technology)

• Other factors related to the mother (for case, if the mother is vomiting, she may not absorb every bit much of a drug, and so the fetus is exposed to less of the drug)

Until recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified drugs into five categories according to the degree of risk they pose for the fetus if they are used during pregnancy. Drugs were classified from those with the least chance to those that are highly toxic and should never be used past meaning women because they cause severe birth defects. 1 case of a highly toxic drug is thalidomide. This drug causes farthermost underdevelopment of artillery and legs and defects of the intestine, eye, and blood vessels in the babies of women who take the drug during pregnancy.

The FDA'southward classification system was based largely on information from studies in animals, which oftentimes practice not apply to people. For example, some drugs (such as meclizine) cause nativity defects in animals, but the same effects take not been seen in people. Taking meclizine for nausea and airsickness during pregnancy does not appear to increment the risk of having a baby with a birth defect. The nomenclature organization was based much less often on well-designed studies in pregnant women considering few such studies take been done. Thus, applying the classification system in specific situations was hard.

Because of this problem, the FDA eliminated the v take chances categories. Instead, the FDA at present requires that the drug characterization include more information near the risk of taking every drug during pregnancy. This information includes the following:

• The risks of taking the drug during pregnancy and breastfeeding

• The evidence that has identified these risks

• Information to help health care practitioners determine whether the drug should be used during pregnancy and to assist them explain the risks and benefits of using the drug to the woman

Typically, health care practitioners follow a general rule:

• They consider giving a meaning woman a drug to treat a disorder merely when the potential benefit outweighs known risks.

Ofttimes, a safer drug tin be substituted for i that is likely to cause harm during pregnancy. For prevention of blood clots, the anticoagulant heparin is preferred to warfarin. Several safe antibiotics, such as penicillin, are available to treat infections.

Some drugs tin can have effects later they are stopped. For example, isotretinoin, a drug used to treat skin disorders, is stored in fat below the skin and is released slowly. Isotretinoin can cause nascency defects if women get meaning within 2 weeks after the drug is stopped. Therefore, women are brash to wait at to the lowest degree 3 to 4 weeks after the drug is stopped before they go significant.

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Paroxetine appears to increment the hazard of heart nascence defects. So if a significant adult female takes paroxetine, echocardiography should be done to evaluate the fetus's center. However, other SSRIs do not increment this risk.

Some antiviral drugs (such equally zidovudine and ritonavir for HIV infection) have been safely used during pregnancy for many years. However, some antiviral drugs may cause problems in the fetus. For instance, some evidence suggests that when some HIV regimens with a combination of antiviral drugs are given during the 1st trimester, the risk of cleft lip and palate may exist increased.

If a meaning woman gets COVID-19, her handling squad and she should discuss the risks and benefits for her so decide whether remdesivir should exist used to care for COVID-19. Mostly, experts recommend that theoretical concerns about the safety of remdesivir during pregnancy should not prevent its use in significant women. There are little data almost the furnishings of remdesivir on the fetus.

If a pregnant woman gets influenza, she should seek treatment as soon as possible because treating influenza inside 48 hours of when symptoms begin is most effective. However, treatment at whatever point during the infection reduces the chance of astringent complications. No well-designed studies of zanamivir and oseltamivir have been done in pregnant women. However, many studies based on observation indicate that treating significant women with zanamivir or oseltamivir does non increment the risk of harmful furnishings. There is piffling or no information almost the employ of other flu drugs during pregnancy.

Acyclovir, taken by rima oris or applied to the skin, appears to be safe during pregnancy.

The most consistent effect of smoking on the fetus during pregnancy is

The more a woman smokes during pregnancy, the less the babe is likely to counterbalance. The average birth weight of babies born to women who smoke during pregnancy is half dozen ounces less than that of babies born to women who practice non fume.

Birth defects of the heart, brain, and confront are more than common among babies of smokers than amongst those of nonsmokers.

Too, the run a risk of the following may be increased:

In add-on, children of women who smoke have slight but measurable deficiencies in concrete growth and in intellectual and behavioral development. These effects are thought to be acquired by carbon monoxide and nicotine. Carbon monoxide may reduce the oxygen supply to the torso's tissues. Nicotine stimulates the release of hormones that constrict the vessels supplying blood to the uterus and placenta, then that less oxygen and fewer nutrients reach the fetus.

Considering of the possible harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy, significant women should make every try to non fume during pregnancy, including discussing strategies with their doctor.

Pregnant women should avoid exposure to secondhand smoke because it may similarly impairment the fetus.

Often, the birth weight of babies born to women who drink regularly during pregnancy is substantially below normal. The average nascency weight is about iv pounds for babies exposed to large amounts of alcohol, compared with vii pounds for all babies. Newborns of women who drank during pregnancy may not thrive and are more likely to die before long after nativity.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is 1 of the most serious consequences of drinking during pregnancy. Binge drinking as few as three drinks a day can cause this syndrome. It occurs in about 2 of ane,000 live births. This syndrome includes the following:

• Intellectual disability

• Abnormal behavioral development

Whether consuming caffeine during pregnancy harms the fetus is unclear. Bear witness seems to suggest that consuming caffeine in small amounts (for example, one cup of coffee a day) during pregnancy poses little or no take chances to the fetus.

Caffeine, which is contained in coffee, tea, some sodas, chocolate, and some drugs, is a stimulant that readily crosses the placenta to the fetus.

Some experts recommend limiting coffee consumption and drinking decaffeinated beverages when possible.

Aspartame, an artificial sweetener, appears to be safe during pregnancy when it is consumed in small amounts, such as in amounts used in normal portions of artificially sweetened foods and beverages. For example, pregnant women should consume no more 1 liter of nutrition soda a day.

Bath salts refers to a group of designer drugs made from diverse substances that resemble amphetamine. More and more pregnant women are using these drugs.

The drugs may cause the blood vessels in the fetus to narrow, reducing the amount oxygen the fetus gets.

Also, these drugs increment the gamble of the following:

If pregnant women utilize cocaine regularly, risk of the following is increased:

However, whether cocaine is the cause of those problems is unclear. For example, the cause may be other hazard factors that are common in women who use cocaine. Such factors include cigarette smoking, apply of other illicit drugs, deficient prenatal care, and poverty.

• Miscarriage

• Premature labor and delivery

Hallucinogens include methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, or Ecstasy), rohypnol, ketamine, methamphetamine, and LSD (lysergic acrid diethylamide).

Marijuana does non cause behavioral problems in the newborn unless information technology is used heavily during pregnancy.

Apply of opioids during pregnancy increases the chance of complications during pregnancy, such as

• Miscarriage

• Preterm delivery

Babies of heroin users are more probable to be small.

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Source: https://www.msdmanuals.com/home/women-s-health-issues/drug-use-during-pregnancy/drug-use-during-pregnancy

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