Drug Effects During Pregnancy



Drug Effects during Pregnancy

Introduction

In this paper, we will discuss the drug effects on health of a pregnant woman and her child. There may be some developmental issues with the child which may affect his or her cognitive ability. The paper will discuss the case of a woman, named, Maria who has just discovered that she is six weeks pregnant and she thinks that despite her regular use of drinking and cigarettes, her baby will be healthy.

Being a psychologist in a women's unit for a substance abuse agency as a member of the treatment team, my job is to conduct individual sessions with clients who have problems which cannot be treated in a group therapy. In general, I provide mental health services for clients who are very needy and cannot afford more psychologists to consult. In fact, all of my clients are unemployed and poor. The research questions of the paper are given below:

What specific information is most important to introduce to Maria to help convince her to make some changes?

How would we approach Maria to help to educate her about pregnancy risks?

What specific behavior changes does Maria have to make to help her baby to be healthy?

What interventions would we suggest to Maria and the rest of the treatment team that will help to support the changes that she needs to make?

Background

The use of legal or illegal drugs during pregnancy may increase Maria's risk of having anemia, skin infections, blood and heart infections, hepatitis and other infectious diseases as well. She is also at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases. Cocaine, heroin and other addictive drugs are not necessarily deforming substances, but their use can cause withdrawal in the new born as well as the growth retardation in the baby.

Since the fetus is connected to the blood circulation of the mother, a pregnant woman who consumes drugs may be transferred to the fetus. The child may have heavy and sometimes lifelong damages to his or her health. Therefore, the use of cannabis, alcohol, tobacco and cocaine during pregnancy should be stopped immediately as soon as the pregnant woman discovers of her pregnancy.

As far as the smoking is concerned, it can be said that the active and passive smoking is harmful specifically to the respiratory tract, while increasing the frequency of respiratory diseases and asthma. SIDS (sudden death syndrome) is the risk of cot death of the infant appears to be in correlation with maternal smoking habit. For sudden death is defined as the unexplained and unexpected death of the infant, the causes remain unclear. However, it is certain that there are some factors that increase the risk of that happening, and among these there is exposure to tobacco smoke. Several studies conducted showed that the smoke before and after birth may determine the occurrence of this event, since the activity of the heart and nervous system of an infant who has been a victim of this practice during pregnancy is different from that ...