The Prenatal Substance Abuse

The purpose of this essay is to explain how the effects of substance abuse is on its all time rise since 2001 and how exactly it effects a child. Substance has many different effects at many different stages of a child’s life. It can harm a child that is not even born yet but other than the effect it can have on your body physically, it can have a ton of mental effects that a caregiver might not know they could have. Other than pregnancies substance abuse can harm children through childhood and even on to their adult hood. The effects that substance abuse has on pregnancies. Utah done a study among the babies born alive in the years between 1989 to 1996. The study was only done on mothers who at least gave birth that resulted in on baby living.

When the researcher performed the study, they put perspective 16 risk factor that can affect a pregnancy. When observing Zhu, Rolfs, Nangle, Horan asked questions such as, age at delivery, outcome of the most recent recognized pregnancy, number of previous live-born infants who had died, number of previous live-born infants, height, prepregnancy weight, weight gain during pregnancy, trimester at which prenatal care was started, number of prenatal care visits, marital status, education, race or ethnic group, residence (rural or urban), tobacco use during pregnancy, and alcohol use during pregnancy. Pregnancy lasting shorter than six months could be cause by multiple things including tobacco use during the pregnancy.

Pregnancy that last longer than 120 months can be caused by thing like previous stillbirth or abortion or tobacco use or alcohol use during pregnancy. The effects that substance abuse has on children through childhood. In many countries in Europe the number of children that have parents with substance abuse problems range from 5.7% to 23%. When a survey was done for the united states at least 12% of children have lived with one or more parent(s) with a substance abuse problem. When a child has one or more parents with a substance abuse problem, they child is more likely to have mental health problem or even some behavior issues. Some children do not develop any sort of mental health problem they are normally referred to as resilience said by the article Protective mental health factors in children of parents with alcohol and drug use disorders: A systematic review wrote by Olga Wlodarczyk, Mirjam Schwarze, Hans-Jurgen Rumpf, Franka Metzner, Silke Pawils.

There is nearly 4.3 million young- adults that do not use prescription drugs correctly and almost 435,000 adults that use heroin on a daily basis. The number of deadly prescription drugs has nearly tripled over the years starting in 2001 said Rebecca Mirick. Mirick states that since 1998 to 2012 the number of kids that have end up in foster care due to at least one or both parents having substance abuse problem is 14 to 31%. When a child is put into foster care because their parents are user of cocaine or opioids the child is affected a lot more than if their parents just used alcohol or methamphetamine or cannabis (Mirick, Steenrod p.547). When a parent uses opioids, they are not emotionally available or even responsive to the needs their children have. even through when a parent is not always responsive that does not necessary ruin the relationship between them but when the parent is always unresponsive that is what impact the bond between them the most.

According to the DSM-V when a person uses opioids they don not have control of thing like craving or trying to quit, they miss important events such as school or meetings, they use opioids knowing the risk, when trying to quit they will go through being severely sick this is called withdrawal, when a person is using at least two of these will be present. Even though a parent is not always there for the childs need when using opioids, they less negative affect than parents that have an alcohol problem and are less violent than user that use cocaine. The effect that substance abuse has on children through adulthood. Growing up with a parent with an alcohol problem can cause many issues such as financial strain, marital conflicts, social isolation as stated in Young-adult children of alcoholic parents: protective effects of positive family functioning written by Hill, Nord, Blow.

Hill stated that when an alcohol dependent parents is drunk or sober, they are like two different people. The main problem in a family with an alcohol dependent parent is that they can not stick to any kind of family night situation or that they do not hold any kind of responsibility (hill p.1678). Young adults that have a parent that are dependent on alcohol they seem more violent toward their parent and do not share a close relationship with them. On average a young adult has there first drink at age 14 and begin to drink on a daily basis at age 17 and through out high school they drank around 4 drink about two times a month (hill p.1683). Those who had an alcohol depended parent growing up tended to drink more frequently and they tended to drink heavier drinks, they are also more likely to abuse drug and alcohol in the future (hill p.1683).?

Work Cited

1. Hill, E. M., Nord, J. L., & Blow, F. C. (1992). British Journal of Addiction. Young-adult Children of Alcoholic Parents: Protective Effects of positive Family Functioning, 87,1677-1690. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
2. Mirick Rebecca G., and Shelley A. Steenrod. “Child Adolesc Soc Work J.” Opioid Use Disorder, Attachment, and Parenting: Key Concerns for Practitiioners,15 June 2016, pp. 547-554., doi:10.1007/s10560-04491
3. Wlodarcztk, O., Schwarze, M., Rumpf, H., Metzner, F., & Pawils, S. (2017). Plos. Protective Mental Health Factors on Children of Parents with Alcohol and Drug use Disorders: A Systemic Review,1-16. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
4. Zhu, B., M.D., Rolfs, R. T., M.D., Nangle, B. E., Ph.D., & Horan, J. M., M.D. (1999). The New England Journal of Medicine. Effects of the Interval between Pregnancies on Perinatal Outcomes, 340(8), 589-593. Retrieved November 24, 2018.

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