what physical or mental effects can "hard partying" have on unborn babies?

Question

my friend just found out that she is 4 months pregnant, she has been drinking, smoking cigs and pot, and using meth, what are the possible effects this could have on her baby?

she has told her dr everything, and so far the baby LOOKS okay.

Answer 1

mental retardation, impulse control disorder and the list goes on. For the babies sake I would encourage her to have the courage and the character to be upfront and honest with her docter right now.

Answer 2

will have a development problems later on while growing in the womb, if not then when its born it will be adiccted to drugs. If they start doing drugs it will be harder to get clean.
The baby could die or become handicap at birth. Birth defects and everything. Even chemical embalance.

Pretty much i wouldnt be surprised in a premature birth or major medical long term issues. Turn her in, cause she needs to detox and straightn up. For the baby's saftey and her own tunr her in to a group that will ensure she cares for her self and the baby, cause if she dont she will have the child taken away if she keps parting during and after the birth

My step sister is the same way as your friend, parties, drinks does drugs. Gets pregnant had her kids taken away cause of that. she has had over 5 kids. on 2 she was allowed to keep afer they took them away and gave back.

Answer 3

It could have huge effects on her unborn child. A child born from a person that drinks can have fetal alochol poisioning and it can cause Mental retardation and other bad things. I would say that your friend needs to stop it all till the baby is born. A appointment with Planned Parenthood could help. Good luck.

Answer 4

I'm going to direct you to a website that has all sorts of information on being pregnant and using drugs. The website has information about prescribed drugs, social drugs (alcohol, caffeine, ciggarettes), and illicit drugs. Hope you find this helpful! Also the information comes from a well known company that makes prescription drugs.

http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec22/ch259/ch259a.html

Answer 5

The effects could be anything, she needs to go see a doctor and let him know what things she has been using so he can look closley at the baby.

Answer 6

brain development occurs in the first trimester. she is past that, so the odds are higher for a brain damaged or impaired fetus. she needs to be very honest with her OB.

Answer 7

I feel bad for the baby for having such a stupid useless mother.

Answer 8

Prenatal Exposure to Drugs

ã2002 Teresa Kellerman



Q: I once heard a neurologist speak at a medical meeting I attended and he asked, "Which caused more problems for children over their lives - prenatal exposure to cocaine, amphetamine or alcohol?" The answer he gave was alcohol because it alone caused permanent brain damage. There must be literature on this and amphetamine use in the neurological literature and in the anti addiction community.

A: Alcohol is more damaging than other drugs because it is a teratogen (it directly kills brain cells and interferes with normal development of the fetus). "FAS represents the largest environmental cause of behavioral teratogenesis yet discovered and, perhaps, the largest single environmental cause that will ever be discovered." -Riley, E. P., and Vorhees, C. V. (1986). Handbook of Behavioral Teratology. Plenum Press, New York, NY. "Of all the substances of abuse, including heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, alcohol produces by far the most serious neurobehavioral effects in the fetus." -Institute of Medicine 1996 Report to Congress

Some reports have said that babies whose mothers smoke or use illicit drugs are at higher risk for certain problems, but most women who smoke also drink alcohol, and most women who abuse illicit drugs abuse alcohol as well. I was informed by treatment specialists that the only drug that is used alone is heroin. The neurological effects seen in drug-exposed children are almost certainly due to alcohol exposure. This is supported by animal research. (It is impossible to conduct controlled studies in humans.)

There is a generally decreasing trend of illicit drug use among pregnant women, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofax/pregnancytrends.html However, there is an increase in binge drinking among pregnant women, in spite of 30 years of public knowledge about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

According to the U.S. government's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 17% of pregnant women smoked cigarettes, 13% of pregnant women drank alcohol, 4.7% were binge drinkers, and less than 3.7% used illicit drugs during pregnancy. The most common illicit drug uses was marijuana. Native American women and white women reported higher rates of binge drinking and illicit drug use during pregnancy than black or Hispanic women. http://www.samhsa.gov/oas/nhsda/2k1nhsda/vol1/toc.htm

Alcohol:

The reason that alcohol does more damage than any of the other drugs is that the alcohol molecule is very tiny and passes directly through the placenta into the baby's blood stream almost instantly. Additionally, the alcohol molecule is similar to the retinol molecule (Vitamin A), and it fits into neural receptors like a key fits into a lock. Both molecules are chains made up of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. I don't happen to have the citation for this handy, but it was part of a scientific presentation at a conference on FAS (in Madison I believe). Retinol plays an important part in the development of the central nervous system, but alcohol sneaks into the brain instead and plays havoc with neurological development.

It is known that prenatal exposure to alcohol can cause a wide range of disabilities in the baby - anything from mild learning disabilities to attention deficits, memory deficits, behavior disorders, dental problems, birth defects (heart, joints, ears, eyes, liver, etc.), miscarriage, and death.

Consider how many babies are exposed to alcohol. According to the SAMHSA National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, about 60% of women between the ages of 18 and 35 drank alcohol during the past month. http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/databases/dkpat5.txt About half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Many pregnancies are not discovered until several weeks after conception, during which the developing baby is at risk. One in every twenty women age 18-25 are heavy drinkers. That means that one child in every classroom has been exposed to heavy drinking, and about five children in every classroom were exposed to light or moderate levels of alcohol.

Marijuana:

Evidence has shown that the effects of maternal marijuana smoking on the unborn child are, at most, about the same as those of maternal tobacco smoking, and diminish rapidly as the infant matures, disappearing entirely within a few years. (David F. Duncan, Dr.P.H., C.A.S. Brown University Medical School, 1998). http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/qa/qaatd/qaatd1.html

Tobacco:

According to a fact sheet published by the NIDA, pregnant women who smoke cigarettes run an increased risk of having stillborn or premature infants or infants with low birthweight. Children of women who smoked while pregnant have an increased risk for developing conduct disorders.

Methamphetamine:

As for methamphetamine (Crystal, Crank, Ice), animal studies indicate that prenatal exposure alone does not seem to have any effects. But there may be a risk to males who were exposed prenatally to meth and later use it as adults. The effect is a greater decrease in dopamine in the part of the brain that is associated with Parkinson's Disease than males who were not prenatally exposed. Females who were prenatally exposed had the same effects as females not exposed. A government report on this research is here: http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol17N2/Prenatal.html

Because of the lack of research on humans, the National Institute of Health has provided funding for research in this area: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DA-01-005.html As soon as the results are published, I will add them to this report.

http://www.uclaisap.org/projects/rawson06A.html



i just hope she has the one in a millon that is not affected by her behavor
http://www.heartofherbs.com/substance.pdf