I would recommend tapering the best you can. If you can't quit completely, try and try to get on the lowest dose possible. That baby is your life now. I know you want the best for he/she. Do not jus do cold turkey cuz you can actually have a miscarriage that way. So you do have to continue your MMT but I cannot stress enough how important it is to get off that shit gradually. You know what's best for you, your body so don't go too hard and put that baby into shock.
hun, this is not sound advice. It may be what you did, but it goes directly against all medical advice and guidelines for methadone and pregnancy. Youre offering anecdotal evidence from one persons experience and telling her to go against the standard practice of the entire medical profession in america, counntless studies, and the conclusions of over 30 years of research.
Not only that, but something that makes me think you might not be aware of some of the facts here is that you said to be on the lowest dose possible. This is actually something that most people who are uneducated about the subject might think is a good thing, however, its actually completely unnecessary and if you do any research on this you will find that the maternal dose of methadone does not affect the baby as far as presence of NAS or need for medication detox. The dose you are on has no bearing on whether your baby experiences NAS (withdrawal.) Study after study has shown this, which leads doctors to suggest that you should be on the dose that is necessary for you to maintain comfort and safety for the baby and no lower. Being on a lower dose does NOT cause a difference, you will NOT be helping your baby at all! Its completely pointless because it will not reduce the chances of side effects. Simply put, it has NO positive effects, and DOES have potential negative effects, so, yea....Thats a bad idea.
in fact, it can HARM your baby more to be on a lower dose than you need! To tell her that she should lower her dose and try to keep it as low as she can directly contradicts the facts here. You can be on 120 or 40, and the 40mg baby might end up with more withdrawal than the 120mg baby. there is no correlation between maternal dose and NAS or any side effects in the baby such as low birth weight or smaller head circumference so to suggest that being on a lower dose is helpful, is not only completely incorrect factually but potentially dangerous
Not only that, but during pregnancy its often necessary to RAISE the dose of methadone because of the weight gain and the fact that the volume of blood in your body increases by about 50% during pregnancy! So the dose that held you before might not be enough anymore and in order to keep the baby stable the dose might need to be upped.
I dont mean to be rude or whatever, and i understand that you chose to do what you did, but you aint giving advice based on medical evidence or the standard accepted practices for treatment of women on methadone during pregnancy. I know youre just trying to help and offer some perspective from your experience and its always good to hear stories from all different sides and all that. I really aint trying to come off as a bitch here, bc I can see that you have her best intentions in mind while giving your advice. But from your post its clear that youre not aware of some of the facts here. and giving advice on a subject as serious as this without a full understanding of the facts, well, it could lead to the person recieving the advice making an unsafe decision. If the stuff you were saying was a matter of opinion it would be one thing but youre telling her things that are not subjective but can be directly proved wrong by medical research, stuff thats just factually incorrect, and if she takes your word for it, she could end up making a potentially dangerous decision.
You should never take anybodys word from the internet anyways, and just like I said before she should do as much of her own research and educate herself as much as she can. as well meaning as your post may be its misguiding
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
I get that the idea is to reassure her and just send some love and tell her that it will be OK and thats a good sentiment to be having. And i hate to say it like this because it just sounds so damn mean and I know that I prolly come off like a fuckin bitch in this post but Im doing my best not to....but what you advised her to do is kind of irresponsible as far as her babys wellbeing goes.
There is no reason to get off the methadone. It doesnt cause any kind of significant damage and INCREASES maternal and neonatal wellbeing immensely. once again, decades of research back this up. It would be one thing if it was like antidepressants, or some other drug like that, which causes very real and potentially severe damage. But methadone is pretty fucking benign as far as drugs to take during pregnancy goes. youre not "doing" anything bad to your baby. You are doing what you need to do , to be the best mother you can be.
Honestly, lets just look at this from a rational, logical perspective here, taking all the emotional shit out of it about "what youre doing to your baby" and all that.
Why should she get off the methadone? What reason is there for that? Is there a compelling, urgent reason?
Or is it just the general gut feeling people have stuck in their heads of "its bad to be "ON DRUGS" while youre pregnant?"
This whole issue, you can break it down VERY simply.
What are the potential damages of being on methadone, vs the potential damages of getting off it while pregnant? The benefits of staying on far outweigh the risks of getting off. Thats really all there is to it. the problem here is that people think with their hearts instead of with their minds, and it ends up causing them to do things that are actually counterproductive and can be more harmful to their baby in the long run. Education on this subject is SOOOO important if youre in this position
my logic is this- all drugs affect the brain of the developing foetus. if you can quit it will be traumatic BUT it will be better for the baby.
i highly doubt opiates would damage the baby the way alcohol would but who knows? the real worry i would have would be that years later when the child is older and a doctor gives them codeine that they would be hugely predisposed to addiction.
for your benefit and that of the child i would suggest coming off the methadone at least while pregnant
For the sake of the child this is a bad idea!
Once again, it seems to go against what you would think. People who dont know about this subject will automatically assume its best to get off, but its not! See my other post, and read the rest of this one. Bad idea! Please dont give advice based on no research and no facts, and only on your vague ideas of what you "think" would be the right thing. In this case its not a subjective thing but a very real, very easily verifiable question to answer.
Saw a show on TV about a girl prego and taking methadone to prevent withdrawals and it broke my heart. The poor baby was extremely underweight and cried all the time because it was going through withdrawals it was devastating. Please, please try to be unselfish. You could always taper of the dones.
To suggest that she is selfish for being on methadone and not getting off is just ignorant. I know that youre not being mean or judgemental, and Im not trying to be mean here either. I dont mean ignorant like "you ignorant bitch!" or anything like that
I just mean that you are uninformed here and not aware of the facts.
IF A MOTHER GETS PROPER PRENATAL CARE AND TAKES GOOD CARE OF HERSELF, THE ODDS OF A BABY HAVING COMPLICATIONS RELATED TO METHADONE ARE VERY SLIM!
The reason that many of these babies have problems is because the mother was ON HEROIN PRIOR TO GETTING ON METHADONE, not someone already stabilized on methadone BEFORE they got pregnant.
If youre on heroin, using, taking terrible care of yourself, dont know youre pregnant, not taking prenatal vitamins or getting good nutrition, and THEN you find out youre pregnant and get on methadone, up until that point, you were already not giving your baby the best environment to grow in!
You cannot fucking blame the methadone for any problems caused by that!
THE METHADONE ITSELF is not going to cause severe problems. it just doesnt work like that. Something to consider is that many of the problems experienced by some women on methadone during pregnancy can be attributed to POOR LIFESTYLE, POOR NUTRITION, and POOR PRENATAL CARE because while they may be on methadone they are STILL LIVING THE LIFESTYLE OF ADDICTS as far as not being stable in life!
Last thing IM gonna say here....
IF YOU ARE ON A STABLE DOSE OF METHADONE, GETTING GOOD NUTRITION, GOOD PRENATAL CARE, TAKING PRENATAL VITAMINS, EXERCISING, HAVING YOUR METHADONE LEVELS BEING CLOSELY MONITORED WITH DOSE ADJUSTMENT AS NECESSARY, AND ARE LIVING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE, THE ODDS OF YOU HAVING ANY PROBLEMS ARE VERY SLIM!!
Being on methadone in and of ITSELF is NOT a significant risk to a developing baby.
The thing that people forget is that lets fuckin face it, a lot of times women addicted to heroin or opiates are in a shitty situation in life! Often there is all types of co occuring disorders and problems, AS WELL AS A HIGH INCIDENCE OF POLYDRUG ABUSE, INCLUDING alcohol! Thats one thing people forget about, and a lot of times the negative effects can come from these other issues that are happening in the background at the same time, like i mentioned before, malnutrition, possible other medication use, unstable and stressful lifestyle, alcohol or other drug abuse, smoking cigarettes, and poor maternal health in general. if you isolate methadone BY ITSELF, in HEALTHY MOTHERS, who are stabilized and getting regular, quality prenatal care, you see a lot less of negative outcomes.
And with the benefits of being on it, vs the risk of miscarraige and brain damage if methadone is stopped, well, you would have to be highly, highly uneducated and uninformed about this whole topic, to suggest that someone is selfish or wrong to stay on it or to urge them to get off "for the babys" good. Thats just like the worst possible advice you could give someone in that situation.
Im gonna come back and provide assloads of links for anyone who cares to read them, but heres just something quick to get you started.
http://www.drugalcoholaddictionrecovery.com/5-misconceptions-about-methadone-use-during-pregnancy/
