Drug addiction in pregnancy

[xarlenex]

So horrible Different addiction, but I know a girl who delibrately smoked to try and have a smaller baby to make it an easier delivery, disgusted me.

 

[coccyx]

Wendino, well done to your Mum for giving these children love and a chance of a 'normal' childhood.

 

[Blah11]

Ah, but Blah11 - being forced into rehab is our choice for the addict, not the addict's choice. Without the addict's will and personal determination to change behind the addiction treatment, chances are very good they will relapse. It could give them a badly-needed moment of sobriety (as jail did for the fellow we just read about), and in that time they might choose to get clean, but if not, they will be back on the junk as soon as they are able.
I don't think there are any easy answers. It's really tough.
I know it makes me sound like a complete fascist, but when I hear about someone bringing not one, but five little heroin-addicted babies into the world, I start to question my strong beliefs in a women's right to control her body. That's when I start to think that certain individuals deserve mandatory birth control. But I would never support that really happening. It's just my anger at the situation.
As a society, we have to take the long slow route and try to help the addict quit, while at the same time minimizing the damage they inflict on those around them. It's very frustrating, but the slow route seems to be the only one that produces long-term results.

I know what you mean but it's not the little babys choice to be fed heroin through the placenta either, you know? It's not fair

 

[Blah11]

So horrible Different addiction, but I know a girl who delibrately smoked to try and have a smaller baby to make it an easier delivery, disgusted me.

I do too Not a friend or anything just a girl I know. Her baby was healthy in the end but boy oh boy was a selfish risk to take. A lifetime of health problems vs. a day or two of pain.

 

[Pyrrhic]

So horrible Different addiction, but I know a girl who delibrately smoked to try and have a smaller baby to make it an easier delivery, disgusted me.

Ditto, a girl I know actually said the other day that she was glad she smoked through her pregnancy.

I think anyone who smokes, drinks excessively or does drugs during pregnancy is......well I don't have to words.

At the end of the day with smoking you have NO IDEA what damage you are doing to your child by starving them of oxygen. FAS and drug addicted babies have obvious symptoms and babies who have been given carbon monoxide instead of oxygen don't always have clear symptoms. They could end up just walking a little later, or speaking a little later, or being a bit slow in class and you'll never know if it's the way they are or if you caused it. I used to be a heavy smoker and I know how hard it is to stop but plenty of people manage to do it.

 

[Sarahkka]

It all gets so tricky as soon as there is a baby involved.
I have close family friends who adopted a little boy with FAS. They are two of the loveliest, kindest people - incredibly patient and understanding - but by the time the boy was 16, they had to give him up as a ward of the state. His behaviour was criminal - very violent and dangerous. He even tried to burn their house down at one point.
He will be in and out of prison for the rest of his life and it is not his fault. He has brain damage - inflicted on him by an alcoholic mother. He never had a chance. It is a complete tragedy.
The other day, my paramedic husband came home in a very foul mood, having just attended a call with a young woman who was 6 months pregnant and coming off a coke and booze bender. My husband was so angry. He said he wanted to throw her in jail.
But how do we get involved without getting into the very tricky territory of giving rights to a fetus? That is a slippery slope where reproductive rights are concerned, and I certainly don't want those sacrificed.
And if we did have laws regarding how you must behave during pregnancy, how the heck do you enforce them?
It is so complicated.

 

[Pyrrhic]

I believe there was a case in America recently where a woman was charged with attempted murder of her unborn baby after getting drunk in a bar? I don't know what the verdict was though.

 

[Sarahkka]

I believe there was a case in America recently where a woman was charged with attempted murder of her unborn baby after getting drunk in a bar? I don't know what the verdict was though.

I didn't hear about that one. Interesting. Reproductive rights are still pretty shaky in the States, though. The Christian right succeeded in overturning them in Kansas... or was it one of the Dakotas? Anyway, they have also done things like charge a murderer who killed a pregnant women with two counts of murder, not one.
It is very tricky territory.
One other thng I heard about was kids with FAS suing their parents for failure to provide the necessities of life, I think it was? And that may have been in Canada.
I don't remember how it turned out, though.

 

[Pyrrhic]

Found the story:

https://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/313/7058/645/a

 

[Sarahkka]

Rafwife -
Thanks!
That was so interesting!
I am posting this bit of the article as I think it also shows how quickly the "pregnancy police" could get out of hand.

"Ms Paltrow also warned against the establishment of a pregnancy police force that could take inappropriate measures in its zeal to protect a fetus.
Ms Paltrow cited the case of a woman in San Diego, California, who, having delivered a sickly child who died a few months later, was brought up on charges that she had had intercourse with her husband on the day of her delivery and that she had not followed her doctor's orders. "Once you open that door, there's no closing it," Ms Paltrow said."

Yikes!

 

[Blah11]

Rafwife -
Thanks!
That was so interesting!
I am posting this bit of the article as I think it also shows how quickly the "pregnancy police" could get out of hand.

"Ms Paltrow also warned against the establishment of a pregnancy police force that could take inappropriate measures in its zeal to protect a fetus.
Ms Paltrow cited the case of a woman in San Diego, California, who, having delivered a sickly child who died a few months later, was brought up on charges that she had had intercourse with her husband on the day of her delivery and that she had not followed her doctor's orders. "Once you open that door, there's no closing it," Ms Paltrow said."

Yikes!

yep, that's ridiculous :\ especially since some MWs and docs recommend sex to get labour started.

 

[mBLACK]

Even though I did alot of drugs in my time I could never take them after finding out I was preg. I knew a girl who was 15 and got pregnant - she was 5 months pregnant and still sniffing cocaine and taking ecstasy! Well, she lost her baby.
I don't think the baby could have had a good life though..