From: (Peter McDermott)
Subject: Re: heroin and pregnancy
Date: 1997/09/07
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard

In article <19970905181501.OAA16344@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
cespin9533@aol.com (CEspin9533) wrote:

>One of my friends just told me she's been "experimenting" (her word) with
>heroin for the past 2 or 3 months.  She's been snorting small amounts but
>has been doing it every day for at least a month and a half now.  She says
>she's not hooked, but she just found out that she's 14 weeks pregnant.
>Since she's afraid to tell her doctor about her drug use, I'm hoping
>someone can answer a couple of questions for me.  If she stops using now,
>shouldn't the baby be okay?

Yes, the baby should be fine. Heroin doesn't have any effect on
the foetus.

>Should I believe her when she says she can stop on her own?

I don't know. My experience is that this you won't experience
any more than very mild withdrawal after such a period, but
some people really don't want to suffer any withdrawals at all.

>And how much trouble will she get into if she tells the
>doctor what she's been doing?

She won't get into any trouble, but it's as well to avoid
having it on her medical record. For one thing, it will fuck
up her ability to get insurance until she's been clean for
ten years, and even then it will be expensive.

Secondly, there's nothing that the doctor will do for
her that she can't do for herself. He's unlikely to give
her any meds that will be useful. Her best plan is to just
bite the bullet and quit.

HTH


====================================================================

From: (Peter McDermott)
Subject: Re: heroin and pregnancy
Date: 1997/09/15
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard

In article <3417c82b.93054251@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
garrsign@ix.netcom.com (Jack Garrison) wrote:

>I shot heroin for 10 years but I've been clean for almost 20 now.  I
>saw many, many babies born addicted to heroin at birth because their
>mothers continued to shot dope thru the pregnancy.  It's a serious
>problem.  I've never once seen a truly addicted pregnant woman give
>birth to a non-addicted child....it's absurd to think it's possible
>since they share blood, food, oxygen....

Then perhaps you should go and check out some of the literature
on the subject. Most babies suffer minor withdrawals (usually
easily managed with phenobarbitone) but a proportion shows no
symptoms at all.

>It's totally irresponsible of the woman to continue to chip or
>keep her habit or whatever the hell she's doing.

Irresponsible to chip, perhaps, but most medical experts these
days *don't* recommend withdrawal because its far more traumatic
to the fetus, especially in the first or third trimesters.

>If she's got a habit, she absolutely needs to seek
>medical help---don't listen to any of the uninformed crap you hear on
>the net.

Including this.

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