Drug Use During Pregnancy

In ancient times, there was much less focus on experimentation when looking for treatments for common ailments. If a thing worked in the past, that was a good enough reason to use a substance. Nowadays, before a drug is a approved for human usage it must pass several tests yet one might notice that nearly every drug that has been released onto the market over the past decade has several side effects. Some of these are extremely dangerous yet these treatments continue to be prescribed. For pregnant women the risk is even stronger and in some cases the warnings state that the substance should not even be handled by women who one day hope to conceive. Here are some of the risks that come with consuming unregulated medicine during pregnancy.

Smaller Birth Weight

When the mother consumes a substance that is bad for the baby, it may hasten the delivery. In such cases, the child is born premature and may have lower lunch capacity at first because that organ takes very long to reach maturity. In other cases, the child may reach full term but be much smaller than the charts indicate he or she should be. These may be associated with other developmental delays but often it sorts itself out as the child ages.

Higher Risk of Birth Defects

A smaller baby than average is quite a small concern compared with some of the other possible birth defects. There are cases where babies have been born with missing or badly misshapen limbs. In some cases the genitals of male babies can have their openings to the side rather than the tip due to the mother’s exposure to chemicals once thought to be relatively safe.

Higher chance of Miscarriage

The very worst side effect of consuming these harsh chemical side effects is spontaneous abortion. While some women may not be ready for motherhood, some want to conceive very badly and this can happen to women in either category. The drugs that may produce this side effect are often highly regulated but it is important for women to research such things very carefully.

Women need to be very careful about the way that they treat their bodies while pregnant. This is not just for the sake of their unborn children but also themselves. Some of the drugs that can injure a fetus can also make an adult very sick and eventually lead to dependency and or death.