How do we educate mothers on the dangers on taking prescription medication like opiates during pregnancy

I was talking to my mom the other day and her company does a lot of research on infants. She mentioned that there is a huge growing and spreading problem happening in the United States called Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). This is a syndrome where children are born from mothers who were regularly taking prescription medication while pregnant. When they are born they go through withdraw and have to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time. So I was wondering, how could we educate these mothers more on the dangers or taking opiates while pregnant. She also mentioned that Eastern Kentucky is having a huge problem with this right now.

We could educate them on the dangers of taking them by simply telling them what could and will happen to them and their baby when he/she is born. For example, treatment depends on the drug involved, the infants overall health and whether the baby was born full-term or premature. “The health care team will watch the newborn carefully for signs of withdrawal, feeding problems, and weight gain. Babies who vomit or who are very dehydrated may need to get fluids through a vein (intravenously).” Infants with NAS are often very fussy and hard to calm down. Some babies have awful and severe symptoms, which need to be treated with medication to treat the withdrawal symptoms. They may treat the infant with morphine or methadone. “The doctor may prescribe the infant a drug similar to the one the mother used during pregnancy and slowly decrease the dose over time. This helps wean the baby off the drug and relieve some withdrawal symptoms. Breastfeeding may also be helpful.” Another sad thing that happens often to babies with NAS is they have poor feeding or slow growth. Babies that are like this need A higher-calorie formula that provides greater nutrition or smaller portions given more often.

This is a very, very scary and terrible problem that may happen on purpose because the mother is addicted to the opiate or on accident simply because the mother does not know the effects it could have. I hope we can educate mothers more and more and stop this problem.

By: Jennifer L.M.

References: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004566/