| The purpose of this study was to show and tell pregnant mothers exactly how responsible they are for another life. When a child is conceived, they are a human from that day on. When a mother does drugs, it hurts that child in a way that can scar that child for a lifetime. These lifetime scars can come in many shapes and forms from, low birth weight, born too early, problems with motor, developmental, and behavioral skills and problems with cognitive development and language skills. There are many more effects a child could go through if he/she is born to a drug dependent mother. It is very important to get these key factors across to mothers. The numbers of women who do drugs while they are pregnant are sky-rocketing each year. Hopefully we can make a difference and our statistics will start going down. If we make an impact on one person, that is all it is going to take to make enough of a difference to see our world start going in the right direction. The effects the children are facing due to their mothers seeking drugs while they were pregnant was not asked for by the children. Lets start giving our children a chance, a chance to live their lives to the fullest instead of starting out under a dark cloud. There are many drugs and each one has a different effect on the mother and child. For example, cocaine, not only has short-term effects, but long-term effects as well. Cocaine-exposed newborns tend to be jittery, cry frequently, startling at little or no stimulation, and are passive and easily distracted. A newborn child who has been in the womb of a mother who is drug dependent has withdraw symptoms, such as restlessness, tremulousness, disturbed sleeping patterns, stuffy nose, fever, high-pitched cry, seizures that start within forty-eight hours after delivery, irregular breathing, vomiting, and diarrhea (Effects of Prenatal Exposure�n.d.). The heroin-exposed infant also sneezes frequently, has frequent hiccups, twitches, and weeps. Occasionally, these symptoms do not begin until two to four weeks after delivery. The irritability, resulting from over arousal of the nervous system tends to end after about a month, but could persist for up to three months or more. Opiate-dependent infants have other behavioral effects such as hyperactivity, growth disturbances, slow psychomotor development, and impaired visual motor functioning. Caffeine has been linked to an increased risk of fetal death. Babies who are born to drug or alcohol dependent mothers usually end up staying in the hospital three times longer than those born to drug-free mothers (Effects of Prenatal Exposure�n.d.). �Developmental delays were identified in more that forty percent of the children with a known or suspected prenatal drug exposure, but a similar percentage of delays was found in children of parents with no drug history� (Franck, Ellen J. Jan 1996). There have been many arguments emerge about the unfairness of procedures for determining who should and who should not be substance abuse and drug tested and who should be reported for the abuse and neglect. Finally, a consensus emerged and stated that, �the only fair way to operate a testing and reporting system was to have universal testing for drug exposure for all newborns and universal reporting for abuse and neglect when a positive drug toxicology is observed. The preferable alternative, then, was to test universally, yet this protocol has generally considered a waste of resources better spent on treatment� (ADP-Alcohol, Other Drugs and Pregnancy. n.d.). The argument that tests are not affordable, not accurate, and are too costly is still having profound influences on the overall view of the best practices. Still today children who are born under the influences of drugs are going home in the arms of the abuser, because the testing is not being done to see if the babies are in withdrawl (Barth, Richard P. Mar-Apr 2001). Is this right? Is this why the numbers of exposed babies, and drug use during pregnancy are going up and not going down? It doesn�t seem like very many people care that this issue is becoming a very big problem in our world today, because no one wants to spend the money to do something about this problem. According to Carolyn S. Carter (Aug 2002), legal interventions for perinatal drug abuse may be increasing the United States. Since 1985, 240 women in thirty-five states have been prosecuted for using alcohol or illegal drugs while pregnant. Eleven states have developed specific gestational-abuse statutes. There are many ways that social workers are using to help women become alcohol and drug free. A few of these ways include, 1) improving access by overcoming scheduling issues and advocating for adequate resources, 2) teaching pregnant women who are addicted to make formal complaints when they receive unprofessional services in prenatal care settings, and 3) developing community partnerships with relevant groups (Carter, Carolyn S. Aug 2002). More and more interventions are being used in hospitals across the United States. Carter (Aug 2002) stated that, �over the past 100 years, there has been an overall shift in obstetric medicine to a focus on fetal protection. In cases involving maternal drug abuse, the shift has sometimes resulted in adversarial attitudes with sentiment favoring the well-being of fetuses and against pregnant women.� Some research has examined possible links between violence and substance use among pregnant women. A Virginia study found that pregnant patients who had been the victim of violence at some point in their lifetimes, were more likely than non-victims to use drugs and alcohol while pregnant (Martin, Sandra L; English, Kathleen T Clark, Katheryn Anderson et al. July 1996). Pregnant women who are involved in relationships where they are being abused feel like the only way out is to do drugs to ease their tension and pain. But what they don�t know is what it is doing to the baby. The mother may be hurting, but the baby is suffering. Juades and colleges (1997), in past research, examining the association between substance abuse and maltreatment of children found that the number of substantiated reports of maltreatment was three times higher for substance-exposed infants than for control children living in the same geographic area. |