In my last blog, I talked about the reasons women aren’t always completely honest about certain habits during pregnancy. One of the more common things to hide is drug or alcohol use. Recent research has shown the importance of finding help and getting treatment for addiction when you are pregnant.
A study conducted by Kaiser Permanente in California looked at the outcome of pregnancy when the mother receives treatment for addiction. The researchers studied 50,000 pregnant women receiving prenatal care at the facility. There were 2100 women who chose to receive treatment for substance abuse and 160 who declined the treatment.
What the researchers found was that the women who sought treatment for substance abuse were far more likely to have a healthy outcome. This is not surprising, since drug and alcohol use is responsible for a range of problems in the baby.
What was surprising was the outcome for women receiving treatment within the first trimester. This group of women was no different from non drug users in terms of preterm labor, placental abruption, still birth or low birth weight. Previous information has shown that using drugs in the earliest stages of pregnancy is damaging, since this is when vital organs are developing. According to this study, there is still time to get help and have a healthy outcome.
One factor that made this approach so successful was that substance abuse treatment and prenatal care were offered in one place. This made it easier for mothers to keep appointments, particularly if they are working and can’t get off for two separate appointments. In addition, since the women were coming in for prenatal care, there was a higher chance they would stick to the program.
Further research will be done in this area to determine the benefits of providing prenatal care and substance abuse treatment in one visit. This certainly seems promising and may save thousands of lives each year, if it is implemented on a wide scale.
Related Articles:
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Communicating With Your Doctor
Dealing with Drug Addiction in Pregnancy