Preventing Fetal Fatality

Drug use during pregnancy is a highly applicable topic in today’s culture. Not only pregnancy in general but high schoolers specifically. More and more often high schoolers are getting pregnant and as is common knowledge this age group tends to be abusers of drugs and alcohol. This research was conducted on noticing and identifying drug usage during pregnancy within medical institutes and a variety of techniques to do so and from there managing and conducting the individual’s treatment. The research stated, “5% of pregnant women between the ages of 15 and 44 years used illicit drugs, including prescription drugs. A higher rate of 20.9% was reported in women aged 15 to 17 years”. The study was showing that not only do the effects of drugs physically take a toll on the mother and baby but also in the realm of child welfare due to drug usage there is great impact. Reports from OBGYN’s showed that ninety six percent ask about illegal drug usage during an initial visit but only fifty one percent continue to ask during routine examinations throughout the pregnancy. Self-report is highly inaccurate because there is a lot of shame and embarrassment when using drugs especially when one is pregnant. This study said that even with urine samples people would use a friend’s urine or not abuse drugs for a while so that it’d be out of their system. When the medical centers changed how they conducted urine samples by observing the patient there was a sixteen percent increase in accuracy. They are now encouraging OBGYN’s to ask four questions about drug usage in the present pregnancy, use in the past, use in a partner, or in a parent. Another tactic in medical centers is “motivational interviewing” which is simply nonjudgmental interviewing where the patient does majority of the talking to hopefully encourage a behavior change. The flaws in this research are that although some many desire to quit using for the benefit of the baby there are still physical dependencies on drugs that aren’t so easy to break and motivational pep talks aren’t probably quite enough to get them out of a lifestyle they’ve held so long. The implications of this study are that more and more medical professionals are being taught this information and these tactics and therefore there should be more of an awareness about the vastness of drug use in pregnancy and how to hopefully bring that number down by implementing some of these methods.

Abstract


Worley, J. (2014). Identification and management of prescription drug abuse in pregnancy. The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing, 28(3), 196-203. doi:10.1097/JPN.0000000000000039