First Trimester Pregnancy – Substance Abuse

Transcript

“If you’re pregnant or trying to get pregnant, then there’s a good chance you want to do absolutely everything you can to help your baby be as healthy as possible. Now, even after you’ve done everything you can, there’s a lot of things outside your control. So I just encourage you to be the healthiest, happiest that you can possibly be and then release and trust and believe that what is intended for your baby will ultimately come to pass. And I say that because you’re only responsible and can only control certain aspects of your health. And there are definitely things outside your control, but what can you control? Well, first of all, smoking absolutely impacts the pregnancy. It cuts off blood supply and oxygen to the baby, and it can contribute to growth restriction. So if you smoke, you must quit while you’re pregnant. And even after you have the baby, because of the potential lung impacts for that baby. If you do recreational drugs or even marijuana, we really don’t have good studies to show the health impact on the baby of some of those recreational drugs.

And I highly encourage you to quit those drugs while you’re pregnant and see if you can stay off well after you have the baby, to ensure that the baby’s as healthy as possible. Now there are some recreational drugs which are known to very severely impact the baby. Things like heroin, cocaine, opioids. Those can have very severe detrimental impacts on the baby. And if you’re taking those, if you’re a user of those drugs, you really need to see your healthcare provider very, very soon so that you can get the help you need. What are some other things you can do to make sure you have the healthiest pregnancy possible? Make sure you’re eating healthy. Make sure you’re exercising, avoiding alcohol, which also is known to have detrimental effects on the baby, like fetal alcohol syndrome. So quit smoking. Quit your drugs. Get help, if you need to quit either your smoking or your drugs. Stop drinking alcohol. Get help if you need to stop drinking alcohol. Eat healthy, exercise regularly, get some sleep, take care of yourself. That’s a lot and try to enjoy the journey of growing this beautiful human being inside of you.”