Repercussions of Drug Abuse during Pregnancy and Childcare

Abstract

Pregnancy is a period of high transformations and undertakings in the female, although this period does not always meet with conditions that favor the well-being of the mother-fetus complex. Economical, social and psychological factors may provide a disturbing period during which the subject tries to find in drug abuse a solution to her problems. There is a high concern with the fact that during the last years there has been an increase in the use of psychoactive substances by pregnant women. Female exposure to drugs during the pregnancy-childcare period may jeopardize the health of the mother and of the fetus and later on of the newly born baby. Harm may consist of perinatal complications, congenital malformations, low weight at birth, alcoholic fetal syndrome, growth and development impairments and even the death of the mother-fetus or of the newly born child. Current study reports the main consequences of the abusive use of drugs during pregnancy and childcare period by means of a methodology based on a bibliographic research and analysis of scientific knowledge. Immediate measures boil down to multidisciplinary activities that involve public policies with better pre-natal care and pre-conception counseling, coupled to the capacity of health professionals to lessen the consequences of the above mentioned problem.