Addiction in Pregnancy to Prescription Drugs Essay

Addiction in Pregnancy to Prescription Drugs - Essay Example Another form of abuse is taking the medicine while still using alcohol and other narcotic drugs. Moreover, abuse of the drugs can be in the form of taking medicine without consent of a medical profession in order to relieve pain. Availability of the drugs makes it easy for most people to access them. This paper illustrates some of the common issues related to addiction of prescription drugs among pregnant women. Introduction Most pregnant women expose themselves into the dangers of abusing of prescription drugs. This abuse tends to cause many health risks to both the mother and the infant. After taking the prescription drugs for sometime without following the regulations ordered by the provider, most of the pregnant women find themselves becoming addicts. Through biological research work, there is enough evidence that everything a pregnant woman eats or drinks have the potential of reaching to the infant. Moreover, the substance ingested may have various effects, either positive or n egative on the infant. Any drug that a pregnant woman may take eventually crosses and reaches the infant. This gives a clear indication that addiction to prescription drugs harms the unborn baby. Provide a brief overview regarding the substance. Prescription drugs are of many kinds depending on their nature of use. Some of the commonly types include Opiods. Most of the drugs under Opiods are prescribed to treat various discomforts that come up because of pain (Schmid et al., 2010). Another common abused one includes the CNS depressants. These types of drugs are commonly prescribed to a patient with aim of reducing anxiety. Moreover, patients with sleeping disorders may take these drugs to improve their sleeping patterns. Examples of these drugs include mephobarbital and pentobarbital (Hanson, Venturelli & Fleckenstein, 2011). The use of all of the above prescription drugs and many more others not mentioned tends to be risky to the unborn child when taken against the instructions. Wh at is the nursing care considerations associated with the use of the substance during pregnancy? If a pregnant woman is taking prescription drugs, she should inform her health care provider. This helps the medical professional to offer necessary medication at the right time. A woman ought to provide her history on the drugs abuse and state the type of drugs she has been using while in pregnancy or before. This will assist the nurse in providing the best advice about how to stop the addiction and live healthily for her benefit and that of the unborn child. Moreover, nursing care considers universal screening of the drugs as the option to determine how they may have affected the woman and the infant in order to provide the recommended medication (Cazacu, et al., 2011). Another consideration that nurses tend to make is checking the level at which the prescribed drugs may have affected the infant. In some cases, it is not advisable for an addicted woman to stop taking the drugs immediat ely. Stopping the drugs at once may lead to a higher chance of causing death to the infant. Therefore, it is advisable for the women to seek medical advice from medical professionals in order for the situation to be addressed carefully. Another nursing care consideration entails that the woman should be ready to undergo various laboratory check-ups in order to determine the level of the effects on both the woman and the infant. What are the nursing care considerations specifically during the second trimester related to this substance? Exposure to prescription drugs