Preview

Babies Born Addicted to Drugs and the Side Effects

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2044 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Babies Born Addicted to Drugs and the Side Effects
In today’s society people are talking about babies being born to drugs, and how could a mother do that to their unborn child. Drug addiction is a very serious issue that needs more research. We are still learning the effects of substance abuse. One problem that needs to be looked at is are there enough Rehabilitation Centers, to help the women who are addicted to these different street drugs. Also doctor and nurses should not judge these women but instead give them the best prenatal care that can be provided. We need to see what harm and side affects it has on the mother and baby, so that we can be able to understand better how to treat these women and get them off drugs before they do harm their babies.
Lets start with what they call the lesser of all evils, that would be tobacco. There are over four thousand chemicals in them some of those are nicotine and carbon monoxide. These are the two most dangerous chemicals. Smoking during pregnancy affects the mother and the baby's health before, during, and after the baby is born. The nicotine (the addictive substance in tobacco), carbon monoxide, and numerous other poisons they inhale from tobacco are carried through their bloodstream and go directly to the baby. Smoking while pregnant will: Lower the amount of oxygen available to the mom and the growing baby. It increases the baby's heart rate. It will also increase the chances of having a miscarriage or a stillbirth. It increases the risk of having the baby be born prematurely and/or born with a low birth weight. Lastly it will increase the baby's risk of developing respiratory (lung) problems at birth.
When babies are born they are addicted to the nicotine and will go through withdrawals. Some of those withdrawals could be that they are more excitable, jittery, abnormally tense and rigid, and requiring more handling to calm them. They also show greater stress to the nervous system, the digestive system, and their vision. These symptoms are less noticeable and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the experience of Correctional Counselors who are responsible for prenatal substance users, and to explore how they view their role in the care of the mother and child while overcoming their addiction. As previously mentioned, legislators are amending existing laws to discourage women from using drugs during their pregnancy and punishing those who do (Stone, 2015). According to Stone (2015), there is little research on the correctional counselors’ experiences working with prenatal substance abuse (Stone, 2015).…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyday thousands of babies are being born in prison to drug and alcohol addicted mothers. This is an epidemic that is commonly overlooked in today’s society. We must ask ourselves; is prison really the solution for pregnant addicts? How to deal with pregnant addicts is a delicate situation that should be addressed by placing pregnant addicts in rehabilitation centers rather then in prisons. Rehabilitating pregnant addicts is more beneficial and effective for the mother and her unborn child than prison is.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But one of the 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes called nicotine makes it so hard to quit. Nicotine is a drug that makes you become addicted to cigarettes and makes you want more. Smoking is an addiction that is started at an early age. Two-thirds of smokers become addicted under the age of 18 (Evening Times). Smoking is very dangerous for females during pregnancy because it greatly increases the percentage of affecting the baby. One good thing in today’s world is that there is plenty of help out there. People need to reach out whether it’s going to therapy or just surrounding themselves around people who can influence them to quit and help save that persons…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People think that drug abuse by pregnant women should be considered as child abuse because the women using drugs are considered drug addicts that get pregnant and not pregnant women who decide to do drugs. They don’t think that they want or intend to hurt their future child. The National Association for Families and Addiction Research and Education explains that an addiction is a chronic relapsing disease that cannot be easily overcome in the few months after a woman recognizes that she is pregnant. They think that pregnant women with addiction problems need treatment, not jail.…

    • 592 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Studies in 2008 have shown that the amount of babies born to drug addicted mothers has almost doubled since 2003. Pregnant mothers have been using drugs during pregnancy for thousands of years without knowing the effects they can have on their unborn baby. Even though some people claim that illicit drugs used by pregnant mothers cause no harm to the fetus, there have been studies that show otherwise.…

    • 2452 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    If a mother’s drug use is sustained through her pregnancy her baby may have effects that continue after birth. The prenatal drug exposure effects are widely ranged depending on the drug, amount, and length of time used during pregnancy. These babies may be born premature or have low birth weights. The withdrawal symptoms range from fussiness to severe irritability, jitteriness, feeding, and bowel issues. Long-term developmental problems may be seen in babies who are born with growth failure or various organ problems that will last throughout their lives (Lee, 2013).…

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drug abuse is an epidemic in our country. While substance abuse is commonly thought to be a plague of the poor, the fact is that it is widespread and has no demographic preference. It can affect anyone regardless of age, sex, race and economic status. A group of illicit drug abusers that may be largely overlooked are pregnant women. This group of people not only harms themselves, but also their unborn children. A woman must be held accountable for the health of her unborn baby in terms of drug and alcohol abuse. Prosecuting women who use drugs while pregnant is a way to make these women more aware of their actions as well as becoming a way of motivating them to seek treatment.…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prenatal nicotine exposure has been found to have avoidable effects on children and their mothers. Studies have shown that prenatal exposure can cause not only mental, but also physical harm on children that can ultimately cause life-course harm (Cho, Frijters, Zhang, Miller & Gruen, 2013). For example, a study resulted that nicotine exposure during prenatal can have damaging effects on the development of drugs in the offspring and ultimately cause wheezing in children (Gibbs, Collaco, &Mcgrath-Morrow, 2016). It was also shown that this prenatal exposure can cause poor cognitive scores in school (Cho, Frijters, Zhang, Miller & Gruen, 2013). Although there are extensive risks of prenatal exposure to nicotine…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “In summary, smoking during pregnancy has an important impact on maternal metabolism and significantly influences fetal development and birth weight. In addition, it is associated with increased risks of both childhood and adulthood obesity and elevated blood pressure.” (Al Mamun A, Lawlor DA, Alati R, O’Callaghan MJ, WilliamsGM, Najman JM. 2006 as cited by Chen & Norris )…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many women, including teens, abuse drugs while they are pregnant. This rate is especially high to those who are homeless, underprivileged, or live in a broken home. In order for drug abusers to even have a chance at beating their addiction they have to have support whether it’s family, friends, or boyfriend/spouse. They must also let the abuser now all the consequences to themselves and the unborn child. There are many consequences when using drugs during pregnancy such as miscarriage, health risks to baby, and health risks to the mother. And learning disabilities and brain damage to the fetus.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Substance abuse amongst women who are of the childbearing ages has risen in the United States, in fact substance abuse is much higher in this age group than with any other age group. While this is a problem within itself already, the problem worsens when a woman who was already abusing drugs gets pregnant. It should be assumed that taking drugs during a pregnancy is extremely dangerous, not only to the fetus but also to the mother. Pregnancy is proven to be harsh on the mother’s body, but when illicit substances are added to the equation there is a different set of complications involved. The purpose of this paper is to inform the general public of the dangers of drug use while bearing a child, to persuade expectant mothers to discontinue substance abuse if any exists, and to expose lack of…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prenatal Drug Abuse

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A mother who uses drugs risks her life and her baby 's. When a pregnant woman uses drugs, she and her unborn child face serious health problems. During pregnancy, the drugs used by the mother can enter directly into the baby 's bloodstream. The most serious effects on the baby can be HIV infection, prematurity, low birth weight, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, small head size, stunted growth, poor motor skills, and behavior problems. A mother 's continuing drug use puts her children at risk for neglect, physical abuse, and malnutrition. It may be difficult for some pregnant women who are addicted to drugs to just impede their abuse. Many women who use drugs have had troubled lives. Studies have found that at least 70 percent of women drug users have been sexually abused by the age of sixteen. Most of these women had at least one parent who abused alcohol or drugs (Williams, 2006).…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Legal Prescription Abuse

    • 2398 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Illicit and legal prescription abuse is an ongoing problem in the United States and it affects millions of people across the country. Many research studies have been conducted on the number of individuals who abuse illegal and legal drugs, from various cultures and social economic backgrounds, but much of the research has been found to be bias, stating it mostly affects minority groups and low income families. Substance abuse whether it’s used illegally or through prescribed medications from a person’s physician affects individuals across his or her lifespan starting in the utero. Drug abuse affects everyone pregnant women and un-pregnant women across the world as well as men and children. It does not matter what geographical area a person…

    • 2398 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This report will inform you on the contemporary issue of prenatal drug exposure, and the impact of it on a child’s future and development. I will be specifically targeting Marijuana. I will cover the points of; behavioral issues, and the increased risk of depression during teenage years. Children that have been exposed to the drug while still in the womb do not have any obvious side effects or defects at birth, and they often do not show up until later on in their development. Thus making this reports contents based on the exposed children’s lives from 3 years of age and up.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Child Abuse Sociology

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages

    For example, stressful environments such as domestic violence, working for long hours each day of the weekend and family issues may lead to the mother turning to marijuana, cocaine, smoking or alcohol in order to feel more relaxed and happier. Unfortunately, according to the article Drug Use and Pregnancy, “Taking drugs during pregnancy also increases the chance of birth defects, premature babies, underweight babies, and stillborn births. Exposure to drugs such as marijuana -- also called weed, ganja, dope, or pot -- and alcohol before birth has been proven to cause behavior problems in early childhood. These drugs can also affect the child's memory and attentiveness”. For “drug babies”, substance abuse could result in withdrawal, which is the immediate removal or reducing dosage of a mind-changing…

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays