In the United States the “opioid crisis” strikes young Americans but also pregnant women. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) draws attention to this phenomenon of growing drug addiction. opiates during pregnancy. The number of pregnant women addicted to this type of drug has quadrupled in the space of 15 years in the United States, worry the CDC experts. “More and more women are experiencing opioid use disorders during labor and delivery,” Dr. Wanda Barfield, director of the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health, told CNN. The study gives the prevalence of opioid use disorder among women giving birth in hospitals between 1999 and 2014. This increased by 333%, from 1.5 cases in 1999 per 1,000 deliveries to 6 .5 in 2014.
A major public health problem
The use of opiate medications, whether heroin, morphine, or painkillers such as codeine, during pregnancy harms the health of mother and child. This overconsumption can have serious consequences: stillborn child, prematurity, childbirth deaths. Babies are also at risk of suffering from neonatal withdrawal syndrome in order to detoxify the newborn.
Faced with this major public health problem, the CDC emphasizes the importance of improving prevention and postpartum care efforts for women affected by this addiction: “After childbirth, women may need be referred to postpartum psychosocial support services, and [orientées vers ] drug treatment and relapse prevention programs,” the CDC said.
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