Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Analysis

The use of heroin, cocaine, and other illicit drugs has become a public health concern especially during pregnancy. Maternal substance abuse has become an issue during the crack epidemic in the 1980’s; however, there is an alarm rate of infants born addicted to heroin. More than 3.7% women have indicated the uses some form of illicit drugs during their pregnancy, as well as 1.9 % reports binge drinking (Bhuvaneswar el at., 2008; Grant el at., 2009). With this in mind, more than 375,000 infants are born to maternal substance abusers each year costing over $100,000 in medical expenses covered by the state (Reitman, 2002).

Substance abuse during pregnancy can have a negative force on the health and wellness of not only the fetus, but that of the mother. The harmful effects of medications, alcohol and illegal drugs on an unborn child can be devastating and can have significant consequences to its use. Sometimes the effects can be faced and treated, and other times the outcome is a lifelong challenge. During the prenatal period, it is important that new mothers are informed of the different types of abuse, how they may affect the fetus, and the adverse conditions their child may be faced with before and after birth.

The use of controlled substances throughout pregnancy is a very prevalent issue among society today. Controlled substances have devastating effects on not only the mothers using the substances, but also infants while they are in utero and after they are born. Many infants born to mothers, who are abusing drugs, suffer from life threatening illnesses and are forever affected through adulthood. Specifically, heroin is a common drug form that is often used during pregnancy and results in the life threatening effects mentioned above.

Through the years, substance misuse in the United States has turned into an industrious issue influencing numerous people. In 2008, it was assessed that 17.8 million Americans beyond 18 years old where substance subordinate. Women who use medications during pregnancy can have an enduring impact on fetal. Medications can have an impact of maternal and child wellbeing, yet there are a lot of different variables, which influence it, poor social environment, nourishment, cleanliness, and sexual abuse. Regenerative interruption connected with heroin utilization has been shown in both and women and even low dosages of opiates can impede ordinary ovarian capacity and ovulation. The harm that goes hand in hand with substance utilization comes either straightforwardly from the impact of the medication itself or from issues identified with development and/or unexpected labor. The entanglements of jumbling components clamorous way of life, poor nourishment, liquor utilization and cigarette smoking influence the appraisal of the impacts of cocaine in pregnancy. In obstetric practice, 100% of pregnant women utilizing cocaine or heroin are cigarette smokers. Cigarette smoking is presumably the most well known manifestation of substance utilizes and is noteworthy corresponding considering ladies who use unlawful medications. Babies whose moms smoked in pregnancy have a tendency to have lower conception weights and diminished length, cranial and thoracic

The National Health Institute (NIH) explains that addictive drugs such as amphetamines, cocaine, barbiturates, diazepam, and opiates consumed during pregnancy pass from mother to the fetus by crossing the placenta. This causes the baby to become addicted to these drugs along with the mother. Once born, the newborn no longer receives these drugs which then results in NAS (“Neonatal abstinence syndrome”, 2012a).

“Every 25 minutes, 1 baby is born suffering from opiate withdrawal. Newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) are more likely than other babies to also have low birth weight and respiratory complications” (Dramatic Increases in Maternal Opioid Use and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, 2015, Paragraph 2). To insure a better life for these babies, people are trying to create an Act called the Plan of Safe Care Improvement or otherwise known as the Infant Plan of Safe Care Improvement. This Act is meant to protect future babies from not only being born drug dependent because of their mothers, but also ensuring them a drug-free environment after birth. It will also “get help for the mothers and any other guardians involved in drug addiction”

The infants LOS and DOT that were weaned off Methadone without a standardized treatment protocol will be compared to those in the LOS and DOT of infants that received the standardized weaning treatment protocol.

This process consists of 6 components: assessment, diagnosis, planning outcomes, planning interventions, implementation, and evaluation. Assessment was conducted in the study by the researchers finding eligible mothers who were misusing prescribed substitute methadone during pregnancy (McGlone et al., 2013) and those who did not abuse any drugs. Once they finished with the assessment, diagnosis was applied to find out the other drugs the mothers were abusing with blood test and analyzing the infant meconium, and to make sure that their control group had healthy, drug free infants. They also implemented an exclusion criteria for the diagnosis which includes birth before 36 completed weeks’ gestation, congenital ocular abnormality, significant neonatal illness, and infants <36 weeks’ gestation. Planning outcomes includes the researcher’s hypothesis that there would be an adverse effect on the neonatal flash VEPs and there would be some sort of relationship between visual electrophysiology and subsequent neonatal abstinence syndrome (McGlone et al., 2013). Next step is planning intervention and this was done by assessing the drugs that each mother abused during their pregnancy in order to see if these drugs had an effect on the flash VEP instead of solely methadone. Implementation was not used in this research due to the fact that researchers were trying to see the relationship between prescribe methadone and flash VEP. Last step in the nursing process is evaluation which is the results that the researcher acquired from the study. Now this research was not conducted by nurses but the nursing process can be applied to it to show how this process is indirectly applied across the

Besides preventing withdrawal, methadone treats the mom’s opioid addiction. About 70% of pregnant opioid addicts will relapse back to illicit opioid use (heroin or pain pills not prescribed to them) if they are taken off methadone. We also know that women enrolled in a methadone treatment program are much more likely to get prenatal care, and babies born to moms on methadone have higher birth weights than mothers in active addiction. If the mother is dosed with methadone, the baby is much less likely to be exposed to infectious agents like HIV and hepatitis from shared needle use. The baby also won’t be exposed to adulterants that can cause fetal damage, if heroin is being used.

The rest of the United States have no specific laws. These laws were made by taking in account the risk of fetuses dying minutes after birth, being born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), heart defects, weak immune system etc. Additionally, there can also be long-term effects as stated in “March of Dimes”such as learning and behavior problems, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and slower-than-normal growth problems (Street). The first weeks of a drug dependent baby are like an old wooden roller coaster full of trembles and thrills but in this case the thrills are not the pleasant ones. In article published by “Daily Mail,” it shows a disturbing video of a baby’s feet shaking vigorously. This is the kind of heart moving evidence that needs to be shown to society to grasp the depth of this

In today’s society people are talking about babies being born to drugs, and how could a mother do that to their unborn child. Drug addiction is a very serious issue that needs more research. We are still learning the effects of substance abuse. One problem that needs to be looked at is are there enough Rehabilitation Centers, to help the women who are addicted to these different street drugs. Also doctor and nurses should not judge these women but instead give them the best prenatal care that can be provided. We need to see what harm and side affects it has on the mother and baby, so that we can be able to understand better how to treat these women and get them off drugs before they do harm their babies.

The use of opioids during pregnancy has increased drastically over recent years, causing newborns to fall victim to the opioid crisis. It has now become an epidemic, affecting people in the United States and globally making it a major health concern. A vast percentage leading to the opioid crisis is due to women in their childbearing stages of life. Newborns born to women addicted to opioids suffer through a form of newborn drug withdrawal known as Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), resulting in increased admission rates, prolonged length of stay in the hospital and infants often require medication to recover. NAS is a result of opioid exposure in utero characterized by “central nervous system hyperirritability and autonomic nervous system dysfunction” (Kraft et

Not all babies have the same symptoms or go through withdrawal in the same way. There are several types of symptoms these symptoms are: high pitched cry, tremors / jittering / shaking of arms, legs, face, yawning, hard time sucking during feeding times, poor weight gain, fast breathing, frantic sucking – fists, fingers, thumbs, trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, fussy – hard to calm, sneezing / stuffy nose, tense arms, legs and body, vomiting / diarrhea, skin rashes – more so in the diaper area and face, and warm to touch / sweating (Cincinnati Children's, 2015). Infants exposure to drugs in the womb can also cause health issues such as; birth defects, low birth weight, premature birth, small head circumference, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and problems with development and behavior (University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, 2015). The rates of NAS increased 5 times between the year 2000 and the year 2013. In 2012, there was an average of one infant born with NAS every 25 minutes in the United States, and that year alone NAS accounted for an estimated $1.5 billion in healthcare spending. (National institute on drug abuse, 2015).

In another study of this group, there were even more positive results. Researchers found that women with a substance addiction, who became pregnant, were more motivated to seek help and receive treatment, (Best, Segal, & Day, 2009). While this motivation for treatment would be a step in the road to recovery for these women, there are still many negative effects that occur in newborns as a direct result of the mother’s use of drugs, and possibly alcohol, during pregnancy.

When a mother intakes drugs during gestation, the baby is effected in all physical aspects including, “narcotic withdrawal,” “postnatal growth deficiency,” and “increase for sudden infant death syndrome”(Pregnancy & Substance Abuse). As a child, there are numerous effects from a drug using mother and not enough laws protecting the child. The United States seems to have set this astronomical issue to the side. No one speaks of it, and no one sees it as a problem. Controversy has settled with this issue, and it need to be a main problem in the world because babies are dying and mothers are getting away with no punishment. Because children are severely affected when their mothers consume drugs during gestation and because many of these children end up being supported by the public, states should consider adopting stringent laws to protect the unborn from parental drug abuse.