Girlfriends 7 months pregnant and on methadone.

[Kraken101]

My girlfriend is 7 months pregnant. She’s on methadone, she recently slipped up. She had to see her ex, who is a POS and did everything he could to trigger her to use again which she did.

Don’t need to hear anything negative please, we are doing everything we can together to make this right. I do not do any drugs ( used to smoke a lot of pot and sniff some coke back in the day )
We do not want to lose the baby. I gave her my urine for her clinic test and her doctors appointment, which she did add methadone to the urine, but it didn’t come up.
I can’t stress enough we are going to do what it takes to not lose our little girl, or have her taken away from us.
Any advice please. Should she just start using her own pee now that both the clinic and DR is assuming it’s not hers? Should she use mine again and just try to add more methadone.

 

[Kraken101]

Will they take the baby away if at 7 months dope comes up in her system? Any help/advice will be much appreciated.

 

[neversickanymore]

I’m not sure.. why doesn’t she get back on the methadone?

 

[Snafu in the Void]

If you are in the US pregnant women who are actively using get very priority treatment from all rehabs/detox/doctors, they will make exceptions for them even if she doesn't have insurance.

That's the only advice I can think of.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Will they take the baby away if at 7 months dope comes up in her system? Any help/advice will be much appreciated.

Why would they? What country do you live in?

My Mrs was on heroin and methadone throughout both of her last pregnancies and our kids are fine.


Edit: before we got on gear, we lost our first child because of a toxoplasmosis infection she picked up from our pet cat.


Pets are more dangerous than many drugs to an unborn child...

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Why would they? What country do you live in?

They definitely do that in the US. However, I'm not clear on the circumstances required. I think they need to have a legal record as well, but they will certainly take away kids from addicts. Not uncommon here, sadly.

They might be lenient with methadone+pregnancy here as well, but I kinda doubt it.

It's probably state law dependent and different everywhere in each state.

 

[Snafu in the Void]

@F.U.B.A.R.

"Parental Alcohol or Other Drug Abuse as an Identified Condition or Removal by State, 2019. When calculating the national average, 38.9% of children removed from their homes and placed in out-of-home care had parental alcohol or other drug (AOD) abuse as an identified condition for removal."

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

@F.U.B.A.R.

"Parental Alcohol or Other Drug Abuse as an Identified Condition or Removal by State, 2019. When calculating the national average, 38.9% of children removed from their homes and placed in out-of-home care had parental alcohol or other drug (AOD) abuse as an identified condition for removal."

I can see there being cases where taking the child away because of parental substance abuse is warranted, but surely its a rarity - even in the US?

 

[Snafu in the Void]

I can see there being cases where taking the child away because of parental substance abuse is warranted, but surely its a rarity - even in the US?

I had a good friend who was a "crack baby" taken from his mother and adopted.

It's not uncommon, but yeah, rare. I guess juggling vaguely quantifiable words.

They surely aren't actively drug testing new mothers. (for all I know, I'm not a woman at the doctor)

 

[neversickanymore]

I can see there being cases where taking the child away because of parental substance abuse is warranted, but surely its a rarity - even in the US?

No unfortunately I don’t think so.. i looked into this awhile back.. as like you, I’m like what the fuck!! Especially given the overall results or rather disgusting shortcomings and atrocities of the foster child system. I’m not saying it’s all bad, but it’s incredibly dysfunctional on levels at best.. I’ll post a bit on this in a little bit as the % of foster care children that end up homeless with little or no support when they turn 18 in the US is a tragedy. They certainly strip babies from dependent parents and they are funneled into a very flawed system.

Her best option is to get back on methadone and role out her pregnancy this way.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

I had a good friend who was a "crack baby" taken from his mother and adopted.

It's not uncommon, but yeah, rare. I guess juggling vaguely quantifiable words.

They surely aren't actively drug testing new mothers. (for all I know, I'm not a woman at the doctor)

Was your friend significantly physically or mentally affected by being a 'crack baby'?


Or was the trauma of being ripped from his mother and adopted out even worse?

I realise It's a tough call for social services, but taking a child from their parents simply because they are addicts is rarely the right thing to do imo...

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Was your friend significantly physically or mentally affected by being a 'crack baby'?

He was relatively normal, however, he was a very aggressive person to a fault. It's hard to explain, but he was very ego oriented and was not the smartest kid. When I learned he was a crack baby it made him make a little more sense as to why he acts the way he does. He was a pretty good friend of mine, but he was one of those people you simply don't trust very much no matter how you know him. He's one of those kids where you think "yeah, he's probably going to murder someone one day". There was certainly something off about him... he also seemed to not have the best genetics in general - I don't mean to insult anyone there, but I won't go into detail.

I spoke to him about a year ago on facebook, he's in and out of prison now which is not surprising. He used to bring fake guns to school at 15 years old, he's the one who basically got ME into dealing drugs in highschool, lol. He was a decent friend, though, and pretty funny sometimes. I hung out with him for a reason.

I realise It's a tough call for social services, but taking a child from their parents simply because they are addicts is rarely the right thing to do imo...

Yeah, I'm sure they put a lot of effort into that decision and give the parents many chances.

I had several friends growing up who had parents in gangs and other bad environments, and they were never taken by CPS.

I always remember being uncomfortable going to their house, their parents were usually screaming at someone over the phone (and talking gang shit) or something like that which made it weird

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

He was relatively normal, however, he was a very aggressive person to a fault. It's hard to explain, but he was very ego oriented and was not the smartest kid. When I learned he was a crack baby it made him make a little more sense as to why he acts the way he does. He was a pretty good friend of mine, but he was one of those people you simply don't trust very much no matter how you know him. He's one of those kids where you think "yeah, he's probably going to murder someone one day". There was certainly something off about him...

I spoke to him about a year ago on facebook, he's in and out of prison now which is not surprising. He used to bring fake guns to school at 15 years old lol. He was a decent friend, though, and pretty funny sometimes. I hung out with him for a reason.

I know loads of kids like that whose parents have never touched drugs.

He may have just felt anger at being 'abandoned' by his parents, or by being cast into a social system that doesn't care.

What I'm saying is that as far as I know, recreational drug use in pregnancy.vary rarely has significant detrimental effects upon the child (the placenta is very good at filtering that shit out). Alcohol is probably the worst in this respect. Environmental and societal pressures after birth are far more problematic.

 

[Nurse Ratched]

ALL United States hospitals now test the Mother's blood upon presenting themselves for childbirth. If Heroin, crack, or methamphetamine are present the child will NOT be going home with the Mother. Not sure if weed is included as it is legal in some States. It's just the illegal ones.

The Mom can then get therapy and rehab and then quickly get her child back. If her OB/GYN is suspect of her urine ( which he obviously is as her mass spec came back suspect ) then it may already be too late. This will be in her records and will follow her all the way to delivery. If she used with her ex once because she was triggered she will use twice. Just the nature of the beast that is heroin.

Best thing to do is go to the OB/GYN immediately and tell him what has happened. Tell him it was a one time slip and the methadone has been working well. Sometimes when we preempt these things they go in our favor. Having her present a false urine sample doesn't look good. Dr's hate that shit. Have her man up, use her own urine, and be truthful with her Dr. Telling the truth is hard but it can go a long way in how we are treated. Dr's and cops treat us so much better when we don't lie.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Kraken101]

Thank you all for the advice. Will talk to her about what you all said today, and I will continue to follow up as time proceeds. I appreciate you all.

 

[Robby D]

My girlfriend is 7 months pregnant. She’s on methadone, she recently slipped up. She had to see her ex, who is a POS and did everything he could to trigger her to use again which she did.

Don’t need to hear anything negative please, we are doing everything we can together to make this right. I do not do any drugs ( used to smoke a lot of pot and sniff some coke back in the day )
We do not want to lose the baby. I gave her my urine for her clinic test and her doctors appointment, which she did add methadone to the urine, but it didn’t come up.
I can’t stress enough we are going to do what it takes to not lose our little girl, or have her taken away from us.
Any advice please. Should she just start using her own pee now that both the clinic and DR is assuming it’s not hers? Should she use mine again and just try to add more methadone.

It don’t work like that I mean the piss test. You can’t add the drug ur trying to fail for and fail it. The test actually tests metabolites. So if that drug isn’t metabolized through ur body or whoever’s body the piss comes out of for the test no it won’t come up.

 

[Robby D]

Will they take the baby away if at 7 months dope comes up in her system? Any help/advice will be much appreciated.

Yes!!

 

[Feretile]

It don’t work like that I mean the piss test. You can’t add the drug ur trying to fail for and fail it. The test actually tests metabolites. So if that drug isn’t metabolized through ur body or whoever’s body the piss comes out of for the test no it won’t come up.

Depends on the test. Most have separate opiate, methadone & buprenorphine tests..... note the 'opiate' which means be it codeine or heroin, the test won't show. I know from experience. I had taken prescribed codeine for pain and the doctor thought I was using heroin. She prescribed the codeine! Lucky - I had the line 'heroin abuser' taken off my records and a BIG apology.

A proper GC-MS/NMR of a sample costs £400 (or it did last time I had something tested) so unless they have a very good reason, they will not do that.

Anyway - the important thing I discovered is that the medicine I take for my high blood-pressure/kidney failure (furosemide/Lasix) means that it will test positive for normethadone & dinormethadone. Not methadone itself, but it's active metabolites. I am not making any moral judgements and their is no such thing as a completely safe medicine.

What I do think is terrible is that you are judged for having HAD a problem that you are not seeking to resolve. Here in the UK drug-dependence is seen as a medical matter, not a legal one nor a moral one. If you are otherwise in a position to take care your own child, you should be supported in that effort. Of course, I need to tell you that if your partner needs opioid analgesia during or after the birth, UK doctors will calculate your dependence and adjust the dose accordingly.

I also note that UK doctors suggest that pregnant women should try altering their methadone so that they take it in 2 or 3 smaller doses at intervals during the day. Apparently methadone crosses the placental barrier more readily than methadone so keeping down the normethadone is of benefit (or so I read).

 

[polarthedog]

Do not let her stop the methadone cold turkey, it could cause a miscarriage

 

[deficiT]

I'm sorry about your situation.

Ultimately, giving advice on how to pass a piss test is not really something we delve into here.

I will still leave the thread open for any more good advice that comes through for you, but will close it if it becomes centered on that topic.