Substance Abuse Essay Assignment Paper

Any substance which flows through a pregnant woman’s blood stream; whether it be positive or negative, debilitating or helpful, will pass through placental walls to the developing child she carries. If one considers how negatively toxic substances such as cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine affect the physical and mental state of a fully developed and healthy adult, it is possible to understand how devastating the effects these same substances have on a child in utero and throughout the course of their development. Examining prevalence rates and current research in the area of how exposure to the aforementioned substances affects children’s physical, developmental, cognitive and social growth can reveal a clear picture of the nature of this phenomenon. Taking into account the numerous myths surrounding substance abuse in general, but especially in regards to pregnancy, closer study of the effects cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine enact upon the developing fetus is warranted.Substance Abuse Essay Example

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Pregnancy can be a difficult time without the added burden of substance use or addiction. A mother-to-be finds herself responsible not only for her personal health, but that of another developing person. To that end most pregnant women attend regularly scheduled doctor visits, take vitamin supplements and join some form of exercise or Lamaze class to make the pregnancy easier. The most critical stage of pregnancy is the first trimester when the zygote becomes an embryo upon attaching to the uterine walls and the embryo develops into the shape and likeness of a human being. Although only 1-3 inches in length, the embryo already has developed internal organs such as a heart, liver, and stomach, all of which begin to respond and function on their own during the first trimester.Substance Abuse Essay Example Facial features, appendages, muscles, and sex organs have formed and continue to take on more concrete shape. During the course of the second trimester, the fetus develops more voluntary and involuntary action such as blinking, grasping, inhaling and crying. The fetus typically measures 10 inches and weighs approximately &frac12; a pound. Although still highly susceptible to toxins in their mother’s body, the fetus at this stage is more fully formed and so at less risk for damage than during the first trimester. The third trimester signals the end of the usual 40 week gestation period and the child’s preparedness to leave the womb. (cite)

In the year 1992-1993, the National Institute on Drug Abuse/National Institute of Health surveyed pregnant women to ascertain the amount of drug use among pregnant women as part of the National Pregnancy and Health Survey. (www.nida.nih.gov, 2004) This national survey found that of the four million women surveyed, 820,000 smoked cigarettes while pregnant, 757,000 drank alcohol, 221,000 used illegal drugs and of those illegal drug users 45,000 used cocaine. These numbers are alarming because they illustrate that over 20% of pregnant American women expose their children to the dangers of smoking, drinking and illegal drug use. (www.nida.nih.gov, 2004) Cigarette smoking appears as the substance of choice for these women, a choice which is reflected in national trends of substance use. (cite)

There tends to be some underlying similarities in the mothers who smoke when they are pregnant. Some of these similarities tend to be that mothers who smoke while they are pregnant are more likely to have dropped out of school, be of lower socio-economic status, and they are more likely to be currently living with a smoker (Haslam & Lawrence 2004). Also, mothers who smoke while they are pregnant are more likely to consumer alcohol as well during their pregnancy; in the first trimester 27’% of women who smoke drank alcohol, in the second trimester that increased to 35% and in the third there were 34% of women who drank and smoked while pregnant (Haslam et al 2004). A major problem for mothers who smoke while they are pregnant is that they are less likely to take the proper amount of folic acid, which is extremely import for women and even more important when pregnant (Haslam et al 2004). Also, the diet of a smoker typically “contains significantly less thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin C, corticoids, and iron than a nonsmoker’s diet” (Matthews. Yudkin, Smith & Neil, 2000, as cited in Haslam et al. 2004). Also, part of the problem is some of these women do not know that they need folic acid and certain vitamins while they are pregnant (Haslam et al 2004).

This behavior and lack of a proper diet has devastating effects on the children born to these women. These babies are more likely to have health problems which are present at birth. Some of these problems include: respiratory tract infections, asthma, impaired lung function, persistent middle ear infection (citation). There are other physiological effects (able 1980 as cited in Weisman, Warner, Wickrammratne, & Kandle 1999) one being lower birth weight, decreased head circumference and decreased in birth length (Cornelius & Day, 2000). Other effects that are present at birth are a greater likelihood of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), as well as an overall increase in infant mortality.Substance Abuse Essay Example

If the child survives through these situations, there are other problems that become more pronounced later in child hood and even early adulthood. Some of the physical effects that occur later in a child’s life that are seen a tendency to be shorter, meaning that the growth is likely to be stunted from lack of nutrients from the mother during pregnancy (Cornelious et al. 2000). There is also a high likelihood that while the child is shorter they are also more likely to be overweight (Cornelious et al 2000). Child also faces cognitive deficit as well mainly in the area of poor language development and verbal skills, and the child is more likely to have problems with their memory (citation).

Along with cognitive and physical effects, there are also psychological and behavior effects from smoking while pregnant that show in childhood. There are “twice as many of the children with ADHD and deficits in attention, motor control and perceptions that had mothers who smoked during pregnancy ( Landgre et al. 1998, as cited in Weissman et al 1999). There also tends to be increase inattentiveness, impulsiveness opposition and aggression that is more likely in children whose mother smoked during pregnancy. There is also a higher rate of conduct disorder in males who grew up with a smoker. In one study they found that there was an increase in delinquent behavior by age 22 in those males whose mothers smoked while she was pregnant than those whose mother did not smoke while she was pregnant with them (Rantakallio et al 1992 as cited in Weissman et al. 1999). In this study, delinquency was defined as any behavior that went on a person’s criminal record. There was another done that showed there were higher rates of delinquent behavior showing up in adolescents (Cornelius et al 2000). Finally those whose mothers smoked while she was pregnant tend to be at risk for substance abuse themselves (not just cigarettes) and for depression later in life.Substance Abuse Essay Example

There have been studies that have suggested that women who are further along in pregnancy know more about the dangers of smoking, and these studies suggest that there needs to be intervention programs to help these women in these stages, so they can have a chance at having a healthy baby (Haslam 2000 as cited in Haslam et al 2004).

Another drug that can have drastic consequences on babies is alcohol. Alcohol is passed from mother to child. There are four steps in this process. The first is that the mother consumes the alcohol, then the alcohol crosses the placenta and enters fetal circulation, next the alcohol is metabolized in the fetal tissues by way of fatty acids, which becomes fatty acid ethyl esters, finally the FAEEs can be detected in the newborn’s meconoium (the first stool passed after birth ( Koren, Gideon, Nulman, Ireana, Chudley, Albert, Looke & Christiene 2003).

Due to the fact that alcohol does cross the placenta, there are many effects that show up on the child throughout their lifetime. One of these problems is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). In order for a child to be diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome certain criteria has to be met. One of the first criteria is that there are facial dysmorphology and growth retardation along with central nervous system problems (Jacobson and Jacobson 2002). Some of these facial characteristics include skin folds at the corner of the eyes, low nasal bridge, short nose, indistinct philtrum (groove between the nose and the upper lip), small head circumference, small eye openings, small mid-face, and thin upper lip (Warren and Foudin 2001). The other criteria include effects that relate to neurodevelopment disorder.

Another side effect from alcohol consumption during pregnancy is called Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is defined as everything related to prenatal use of alcohol that is not FAS (Sokol, Delaney-Black, & Nordstrom 2003). For both FAS and FASD there are five categories, the first is FAS with confirmed maternal alcohol exposure, the second is FAS without confirmed material alcohol exposure, the third is paternal FAS with confirmed maternal alcohol exposure, the fourth is alcohol related birth defects and the fifth is alcohol related neurodevelopment disorder (Warren et al 2001).

There are long term developmental effects in children with FASD or FAS. One its there are most likely to be learning deficits that are present of pragmatic language tests, arithmetic and attention functioning (Jacobson et al 2002). Also, children with FAS or FASD have severe impairments in complex planning, analyzing problems, devising strategies and monitoring one’s performance and strategy (Jacobson et al. 2002).Substance Abuse Essay Example Child who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is more likely to be considered mentally retarded or score below 70 on an IQ test, and there is an impaired cognitive flexibility to attend to multiple criteria simultaneously and to shift attention during a task (Jacobson et al. 2002). In a study done by Jacobson et al. (2002), children with FAS who exhibited attention sustenance were more likely than those with FAS who didn’t exhibit these symptoms to have active recall of information. Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome were also more likely to show impairment in learning and memory capabilities (Jacobson et al. 2002). Children with FAS are also more likely to be more irritable during infancy and consequently in later childhood more aggressive than children who don’t have FAS; they also have higher rates on antisocial behaviors (Jacobson et al. 2002).There are also long term developmental effects for children with FASD which include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, inability to foresee consequences, inability to learn form previous experience, inappropriate or immature behavior, lack of organization, learning difficulties, poor abstract thinking, poor adaptability, poor impulse control, poor judgment, speech, language, and other communication problems (Koren et al. 2003).

After the resurgence of cocaine use in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the development and epidemic abuse of crack-cocaine especially among urban, poor African-American communities lead to the “crack baby” phenomenon. The increasing numbers of children born during this period to substance abusing mothers became cause for concern as these children entered the public school systems and teachers noticed differences in abilities, attention and classroom needs. The pervasive paradigm of the time that children exposed to cocaine or crack-cocaine were at high risk for externalizing problems, IQ disadvantages, and learning and developmental delays. Studies were conducted to assess special educational needs of these children, and plans and policies were drawn up regarding the children’s needs and their mother’s rights. (cite) These beliefs and concerns spurred a wealth of research into the subject which has continued into the 21st century.

After more than two decades of research, it turns out that “crack babies” aren’t entirely condemned by their mother’s choices with respect to substance use. Research studies differ on exactly how and in what way cocaine affects development, but the majority of research has found that the effects of cocaine exposure during pregnancy are considerably less harmful than the debilitating effects of drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. To appropriately address the research, the findings will herein be discussed within the context of physical, developmental, and cognitive deficits for children exposed to cocaine in utero.Substance Abuse Essay Example

One of the reasons why researchers began studying babies who had been exposed to cocaine was because of how the babies differed physically upon independence from the womb. If you remember, a normal baby gestates for approximately 40 weeks. (cite) Babies who’ve been exposed to cocaine typically gestate for a much shorter period and have 25% higher chance than their non-exposed peers of being born prematurely. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists has found that women who use cocaine during pregnancy are at risk for placental abruption which occurs when the placenta detaches from the uterus too soon. This trauma can result in premature birth, severe bleeding, and possibly fetal or maternal death. (www.medem.com, 2004) Psychological research supports these findings and suggests that cocaine use during pregnancy can result in younger gestational age and lower birth weight. (Bennett, 2002) In some research, smaller head circumference and shorter body length were also related to cocaine exposure. (Singer, 2004)Substance Abuse Essay Example

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Substance Abuse Essay Assignment Paper

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