Effects of Prenatal Drugs - Early Childhood

In this paper, I am going to bring together research from various sources to emphasize the importance of being drug free before, during, and after pregnancy. While pregnant, the mother and the baby share many things; nourishment, blood, and even their immune system. This is normally a good system, but if the mother introduces a controlled substance (illicit drugs, OTC drugs, alcohol, tobacco) the baby shares the ill effects of that as well. Prenatal exposure to drugs can cause a baby to be stillborn, addicted to the drug, malformed, and/or have a higher likelihood of developing social or learning difficulties in their life.What is so bad about it?:

As stated before, the child and the mother are basically two people living off of one body. The child is a 'temporary tumor' inside the mother and anything that the mother does can affect the child. Prenatally exposing your baby to controlled substances may seem fairly common sense to us, but to a poor mother addicted to cocaine, they may not know or care about the possible consequences. Many doctors today are having trouble nailing down an exact timeline as to when it is time to stop using or drinking before the pregnancy and when it is okay to start again if need be. One of the major issues is alcohol and tobacco. Some doctors will tell the mothers that they can drink after they give birth, but what the mother may not know is that it is possible for the alcohol to get into the milk that they are feeding their baby. The majority of the babies prenatally exposed to drugs come from poor and undereducated families.So what happens if they are exposed?:

The studies that I found while researching came to the same general conclusion except for one. The Harvard Mental Health Letter found after running their tests that most of the children in the groups scored close to average on IQ tests and had no apparent behavioral problems. The only real clue that the children were even drug exposed was that they were less attentive while performing difficult tasks. The cocaine exposed children expressed more destructive behavior and the marijuana exposed had a lower score in the abstract visual reasoning, but otherwise they performed as well as a non-exposed child (Harvard Mental Health Letter). I was not able to find any other research to support this directly. However this may be because the relationship between the prenatal exposure to drugs and how a child turns out is very complex. Many of the infants exposed have normal birth outcomes and any neurobehavioral problems may not be found or surface until later in life (Cosden). Conducting research studies is a hard thing to do because most of the mothers who want help are multi-drug users or using a drug while addicted to alcohol and tobacco, so it is hard to determine what substance has what effect on a child. Also the research is hampered by the fact that prenatally exposed also have environmental risks, most involve poverty and lack of good nutrition and prenatal care (Cosden).I was prenatlly exposed, what does my life look like?:

In this section I am going to look at some of the various outcomes of a child that was exposed to a few different drugs: cocaine, opiates, and alcohol. The studies that I am referencing used a few different ways to come to their conclusions. They used a longitudinal study to watch the children over time to mark their development and they also used a physical reaction test as well as a cry test where they measured the pitch and time of crying for different drugs. A baby that is exposed to cocaine and been shown to cause high excitability, depression, self-regulation problems, not able to stay alert, and a low arousal state. The study states that its finding of a lower arousal state and high excitability supports their construct of excitable and depressed neurobehavioral patterns in cocaine-exposed children (Lester). Cocaine also directly influences the development of the fetus by blocking neurotransmitter uptake, increasing vascoconstriction, and inhibiting the ability of the fetus to get the needed nutrients (Cosden).What problems does an 'at risk' infant show?:

In one study, congenital birth problems were found in less than half of the births. Most common problems were respiratory (i.e. RDS, apnea), CNS problems (i.e. jittery babies, agitated, poor sleeping), and cardio issues (i.e. heart murmur, irregular heartbeat) (Cosden). In this same study, the number break down of the birth problems can be seen below (Cosden).

A B(#) C(%)

Positive toxicology 21 31.25

Respiratory 18 22.50

CNS or behavioral 16 20.00

Cardiological 9 11.25

Gastrointestinal 5 6.25

Seizures 3 3.75

Other congenital 3 3.75

Some of the more physically apparent characteristics was low birth-weight (Watson). In the cry study, researchers found that babies with louder and higher pitched cries from cocaine exposed babies, while babies exposed to alcohol were more reactive to stimuli to get them to cry. Infants exposed to marijuana had more glottal instability (Lester).

21 children were underweight

23 were hospitalized

26 had language deficits

29 were hyperactive

In the study by Watson, the children were studied in a longitudinal format. This allowed researchers to follow them as they developed instead of for the first few months. Many of the problems caused by prenatal exposure may not present until later in life. They used 34 children in the study and summarized their findings, which I listed with the problems they found that had over 20 children showing signs of having or developing it in the table to the left (Watson). The most disturbing thing about reading all of this research and the outcomes is that all of it can be avoided by simply taking care of yourself and your child when you are pregnant. Summary of Subject:

Prenatal exposure to any type of controlled substance (alcohol, illicit drugs, and/or OTC drugs) has the possibility of causing various birth defects along with many other complications during and after pregnancy. Studies showed that the majority of the problems involved with prenatal exposure to drugs are the child being addicted to the substance, having reparatory problems, or CNS or behavioral issues. The drug exposure can also inhibit the development of secure early attachments (Cosden). The information I learned will be stored away for use later in life when I have my own children. I do not wish these problems on anyone.Bibliography

Cosden, Merith. "Effects of Prenatal drug exposure on birth outcomes and early child development." Journal of Drug Issues (1997): 525-539.

Harvard Mental Health Letter. "Effects of prenatal drug exopsure: New Data." Harvard Mental Health Journal (1995): 7.

Lester, Barry M. "The Maternal Lifestyle Study: Effects of Substance Exposure During Pregnancy on Neurodevelopmental Outcome in 1-Month-Old Infants." Pediatrics (2002): 1182.

Watson, Silvana M. R. "Prenatal Drug Exposure." Remedial & Special Education (2003): 204.