Marijuana and Alcohol Use During Oklahoma Pregnancies

It’s an unfortunate coincidence that the age group with the highest rate of substance abuse in Oklahoma is also the prime age group for having babies. Overall, about 8.5% of Oklahomans over 12 years of age used an illicit drug or abused a prescription medication in the last month. In the age group 18-25, the percentage increases to almost 20% or one in five people.

Most people know that it’s risky to drink alcohol during pregnancy and that it can result in lasting damage to the baby. But in the same age group, nearly 60% use alcohol each month, and more than 37% have indulged in binge drinking in the last month.

When a woman is pregnant, any drug she takes, her unborn child also takes. That drug could be marijuana, alcohol, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine or painkillers. The effects on the child could be mild or they could be life-threatening. They could take the life of the child in the womb or cause birth defects that change the course of the person’s entire life.

Each year, there are about 54,000 births in Oklahoma. Birth defects resulting from drug or alcohol abuse are 100% preventable. Here’s some of the types of harm that can come to children from a mother’s drug or alcohol use during pregnancy.

Alcohol

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: a combination of symptoms that include physical, mental, behavioral, and/or learning disabilities that can last a person’s whole life. For example, intellectual disability, deformities of joints, small head or brain, slow growth, poor social skills
  
• Greater risk of miscarriages, stillbirths and premature birth

Marijuana

• Greater risk of heart defects
  
• Lower birth weight
• Impaired eyesight
  
• Higher risk of asthma, chest infections and respiratory problems
  
• In later life, lowered scores on verbal, memory and reasoning tests
  
• Nearly threefold increase in fetal death
  

Cocaine

• Hyperactivity
  
• Behavioral and learning problems
  
• Low birth weight
  
• Increased risk of miscarriage, prematurity and stillbirth
  
• Withdrawal symptoms like sleeplessness and muscle spasms
  
• Defects of genitals, kidneys or brains
  

Heroin and Opioids

• Painful withdrawal symptoms that can last weeks 
  
• Higher risk of sudden infant death
  
• Difficulty feeding
  
• Bleeding in the brain
  

Methamphetamine

• Miscarriage and prematurity
  
• Withdrawal symptoms including trouble sleeping and jitteriness
  
• Tremors and lack of muscle tone
  
• Increased risk of sudden infant death
  
• Low birth weight
  

Researchers Provide Closer Looks at the Problems

A recently published study from researchers in Australia provided more specific information on the prematurity associated with marijuana use. They followed the pregnancies of more than 5,000 women and monitored the group for marijuana use. The marijuana-using mothers gave birth, on average, four weeks earlier than the non-marijuana using group.

Another study from the University of Utah used an analysis of 663 stillbirths to determine if tobacco or marijuana use could have contributed to those losses. The researchers concluded that 94% of the stillbirths were associated with some kind of substance abuse by the mother. The most common substance being abused was marijuana with tobacco exposure coming in second.

Many women are currently being told by their friends or even their doctors that they should use marijuana during pregnancy to help with morning sickness. The mother risks losing her baby or other complications if she chooses this solution.

Many Women Try to Avoid Drugs & Alcohol

There are many women who state that as soon as they found out they were pregnant, they were able to successfully stop using drugs or drinking. Of course, many do not and their babies suffer the consequences. For more information on the effects of alcohol, click here. 

Of course, one of the hazards is that a young woman may be pregnant and not know it for a few weeks or longer. The only safety for our next generation is for women who are sexually active and who could become pregnant to refrain from the use of drugs or alcohol. When a person is addicted, this is a very difficult – if not impossible – task.

At Narconon Arrowhead, we have been helping both men and women leave their addictions behind for more than 20 years. Children need not only healthy mothers but stable, loving fathers. We are proud of the thousands of sober, productive mothers and fathers we have returned to their homes since we opened our doors. 

If you care about someone who needs help, call us at 1-800-468-6933 today.

References:

http://www.narconon.org/drug-abuse/marijuana/body.html

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fetal-alcohol-syndrome/basics/symptoms/con-20021015

http://healthcare.utah.edu/healthlibrary/related/doc.php?type=85&id=P01208

https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news84762.html

https://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/misc-alcohol-news-13/pot-smoking-in-pregnancy-tied-to-stillbirth-risk-682892.html

http://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-health/illegal-drugs-during-pregnancy/