Drug Use During Pregnancy: Risks and Dangers for the Newborn

The issue of the use and abuse of substances and certain types of drugs during pregnancy is an issue of fundamental importance with regard to procreative health, because there are some potential consequences, even serious ones, on both the fetus and the newborn. Of course, a distinction must be made, because the substances of abuse are varied.

The consequences that these substances, including drugs in some cases, can be divided into various types: prematurity or intrauterine growth retardation; damage to the placental and cord circulation of the fetus, which can - in some cases - lead to fetal distress; Then there are substances such as amphetamines that can have a negative effect on brain development. It is not always possible to determine the extent of these problems and their development over some time.

A final chapter concerns the neonatal outcome. Reference is made, for example, to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome which occurs in children of mothers who have used substances, such as opiates and derivatives, which - as is known - are addictive. These newborns develop purely neurological withdrawal symptoms, ranging from irritability to inconsolable crying to much more serious clinical pictures, which can put his life at risk. This syndrome is relatively easy for an experienced neonatologist to recognize, but it should not be underestimated. In fact, it requires hospitalization and monitoring in intensive care. It should be noted that the syndrome is relatively uncommon in our latitudes (in Italy and Europe), while it is a much more felt problem in Asia and the United States, where unfortunately the use of these substances during pregnancy is widespread to the point that there is a fair line of research to find drugs to help the child affected by this syndrome. Obviously, it is a phenomenon that we would like to avoid upstream, in order to have good procreative health.