Impact of Maternal Drug Dependency on Birth Weight and Head Circumference of Offspring

Infrequent neonatal opiate withdrawal following maternal methadone detoxification during pregnancy

“…This dose-related effect may explain why we did not observe more pronounced neonatal withdrawal in methadone-exposed than in heroinexposed infants (see figure 1): The median initial methadone dose in our detoxification program was 2 -6 times lower than in reported maintenance programs [7].…”

“…This may be explained by better nutrition due to diminished drug acquisition related problems [7,18], regular prenatal care [1,11,23], mitigated withdrawal attacks and anabolous effect of methadone [7]. We could not confirm this improvement possibly because our mothers were less socially underprivileged than in other studies (see table III); the higher birth weight in our neonates whose mothers had been completely detoxified, is not due to improved fetal growth, but to longer duration of pregnancy alone.…”

Children of mothers abusing amphetamine: head circumference during infancy and psychosocial development until 14 years of age

“…Intrauterine drug exposure has been shown to affect the head circumference (HC) of children. This has been shown for cocaine, heroine as well as combinations (4)(5)(6)(7)(8). Neuro-behavioural abnormalities have also been demonstrated in conjunction with these drugs.…”

“…This probably contributes to some extent to our ndings and those of others concerning the adverse effects of various types of drug abuse during pregnancy. In one study, small head size in children of mothers with drug dependence seemed to be most pronounced when mothers admitted to smoking (8).…”

Methadone and Metabolites in Hair of Methadone-Assisted Pregnant Women and Their Infants

“…Others also documented increased birth weight or length with higher methadone doses during pregnancy. 42–43 Higher maternal methadone dosing may generally reduce heroin relapse and reflect a less stressful lifestyle and better nutrition, resulting in healthier fetal weight gain. 44 Previous studies demonstrated that past heroin abuse, despite abstinence during pregnancy, could contribute to reduced birth weights, 44 suggesting that heroin induced maternal physiologic changes.…”