Nausea, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Dr. Drew discussed on Let's Talk Addiction & Recovery
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
We have better things to treat nausea and vomiting and pregnancy, safer things. Marijuana does, I go to the fetus. It does cross the placenta. And there are cannabinoid receptors in the fetus. And so you will have the marijuana. Going to baby. And so there will be an effect. So we would discourage any marijuana in pregnancy so that's those are good messages for people who might be casually using substances or using them even responsibly before pregnancy. And then certainly discover they're pregnant, but let's talk now about women who develop a dependency, an addiction to alcohol or other drugs. What are the risks to their unborn baby? So specifically with alcohol, that is a unfortunately an irreversible damage that so it's irreversible. Damage that you could do to baby. So if moms drinking and baby is exposed to alcohol and just the right amounts, that is a that can result in brain damage. And you often see it with infants, it'll change the way they're face looks. So the filter from here will be flat, sometimes the ears can be low set. The profile is flattened on the face. So, you know, especially like in a northern European population, you may have a strong profile, but the faces that meaning the way that the face looks and babies will actually be altered too. So you can have physical disfigurement with the baby so the baby is going to look a certain way if exposed if having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder or fetal alcohol syndrome. And then irreversible brain damage can also be caused by drinking alcohol. And there's a spectrum of damage that can be done. Dr. Drew, if a woman is dependent on substance, does that mean that the baby is also dependent? Thanks for asking that. Boy, that's a great question. So, you know, the baby may be a maybe passively. Dependent on the on the drug that's coming through the placenta. But the baby is just along for the ride. They're the passenger. And so they may have something like an opioid coming through the placenta, baby gets used to that, that's the only environment baby is known. And so then when babies born, baby will be what we will withdraw. And so it's possibly dependent, but we really want to avoid the term something like addicted. The baby's not addicted to opioids or whatever that Medicaid or whatever that drug may be. But it's a passive passenger. It's a passive dependency that the baby can go through some withdrawal with treatment and be treated, but we really want to do a service to the mom and the baby. And use the appropriate language such as the baby may be dependent on a certain drug, but is certainly not addicted. So we would want to avoid that type of language, which could be disparaging to mom and or baby. Great point. So I want to talk about treatment while pregnant, but before we go there, you've just raised an interesting point. What about women who are taking appropriately prescribed medications for mental health issues? What should they do while pregnant? Yeah, so this question comes up a lot. So you have somebody who's stabilized on a medication that's completely appropriate and prescribed by a psychiatrist and the mom is benefiting from it. So the way we look at this is that all every little bit a little bit of medication is going to go to baby a little bit, even in breast milk, right? When mom is postpartum and breastfeeding. However, you have to take a look and look at look at mom's function on the medication or off the medication..