Substance use in pregnancy: The medical challenge

Substance use contributes significantly to the global burden of disease. Growing numbers of women use nicotine, alcohol, and illicit substances. Women are the most vulnerable to problematic substance use in their reproductive years. The first 1000 days of life, starting at conception, have been established as a critical window of time for long-term health and development. Substance use in pregnancy is associated with negative pregnancy and child health outcomes. The impact of antenatal substance use on these outcomes needs to be considered within a challenging and complex context. This review provides an overview of the current literature on the impact of substances on pregnancy and child outcomes as well as the evidence and guidelines on screening and interventions for women using substances during pregnancy.

Smoking cessation in pregnancy

Managing smoking cessation during pregnancy is vital to the wellbeing of the fetus and the mother. Women who continue to smoke during pregnancy expose the fetus to thousands of chemicals which have been shown to cause deleterious short- and long-term effects. Although a large majority of women cease smoking early in the pregnancy, many of them relapse following delivery. Following a review of current research, an overview of the safety and efficacy of smoking cessation treatments for pregnant women will be considered. Limited research has been performed in this field; however, it can be concluded that low-dose intermittent nicotine replacement therapy is a safe treatment modality for women who smoke during pregnancy. At present there has been no research on other current smoking cessation treatments; however, we will suggest techniques to improve cessation rates and strategies to reduce relapse.

Illicit drug use in late pregnancy associated with stillbirth and eclampsia

We present the case of a 20-year-old student with an undiagnosed pregnancy who had taken ecstasy and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). Twenty-four hours later she delivered a stillborn term infant, and subsequently developed eclampsia with seizures, hypertension and proteinuria. Illicit drug use is relatively common in women of child-bearing age in Australia, and is a risk factor for adverse obstetric outcomes. Ecstasy (MDMA [3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine]) is a sympathomimetic amine, similar to amphetamine in its cardiovascular effects. LSD is a hallucinogen with complex pharmacology and has potential for significant compromise of placental blood flow. We propose that the combined vasoconstrictive effects of MDMA and LSD caused placental ischaemia, contributing to the fetal death and precipitating a cascade of endothelial dysfunction which resulted in an eclamptic syndrome.