Being addicted to drugs is rough and can be a hard battle to win, but it can be won. However, being addicted to drugs while pregnant can be a battle someone innocent never should have to fight. If you find yourself pregnant while under drug addiction, be open and honest with your doctor. Tell him immediately because the development effects of children born to drug addiction can be permanent.
What should a woman do if she finds herself addicted to drugs and pregnant?
She should do everything in her power to stop taking drugs. It has long been known that whatever a woman takes in pregnancy will almost always cross over to the unborn child.
Alcoholic mothers greatly increase their baby’s risk of alcoholics developing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Children born to women battling drug addiction are not only at risk of become dependent on drugs. They can have a smaller birth weight. They can have problems with sleeping and with developing mentally which is a catch-22 if a mother is drug addicted because she can also abuse the child due to her own psychological problems, high expectations and lack of patience.
Other developmental problems include not being good at interacting socially with other children their ages, whether as toddlers or school-age children. Their language skills, their comprehension, learning how to share and take part in a social environment; all of these are more difficult for a child who has been damaged before birth by a mother’s drug addiction.
Behavioral problems, both in the child and in the drug addicted parent, makes things especially hard on the child. A drug addicted parent should be taught how to focus on the child and how to become a good parent, starting with monitoring and detox as soon as possible under the medical care of a physician.
A child born to a drug addicted mother has most likely become addicted too.
If it has been established that a child’s development has been affected, much can be done to correct it, or deal with it in ways that can help the child learn and progress more effectively. If you are pregnant and on drugs or alcohol, then the best thing you can do as a parent is to get help immediately, not just for yourself but for your child as well.
