Pregnant on OMT, what was your experience?

[Reader2]

Dear BL’ers,

I’m almost due to give birth, and on 32mg buprenorphine. I live in France, my OB is well aware but won’t give me much info on what will happen aside from “we wait and see”.
Please if you have been pregnant/with a pregnant person and on OMT, with what you think is a high dose, I’d appreciate hearing from you. Honest experience.

Also, as a normal, I don’t have access to Elsevier or any of these research monopolies, so if you’re a student / researcher and have access to these and/or medical journals, I’d appreciate your investigation on this. Specifically, I can’t find any research publications where this amount is mentioned, only regularly see 8mgs <\> without dose specifics. 32, it’s a high dose I think. On one hand, I read somewhere that est 50-65% of the maternal dose crosses the placenta, and on the other, that maternal dose of methadone/buprenorphine does not make a difference to likelihood of neonatal withdrawal/ treatment.

Both Mams or Dad experiences both valued here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[negrogesic]

Dear BL’ers,

I’m almost due to give birth, and on 32mg buprenorphine. I live in France, my OB is well aware but won’t give me much info on what will happen aside from “we wait and see”.
Please if you have been pregnant/with a pregnant person and on OMT, with what you think is a high dose, I’d appreciate hearing from you. Honest experience.

Also, as a normal, I don’t have access to Elsevier or any of these research monopolies, so if you’re a student / researcher and have access to these and/or medical journals, I’d appreciate your investigation on this. Specifically, I can’t find any research publications where this amount is mentioned, only regularly see 8mgs <\> without dose specifics. 32, it’s a high dose I think. On one hand, I read somewhere that est 50-65% of the maternal dose crosses the placenta, and on the other, that maternal dose of methadone/buprenorphine does not make a difference to likelihood of neonatal withdrawal/ treatment.

Both Mams or Dad experiences both valued here.

Thanks in advance.

From what I just read the severity of the withdrawal in the newborn is not particularly proportional to the dose, meaning that while you are at a certainly high dose of buprenorphine, your child is not likely to suffer a withdrawal syndrome worse than say the child of a mother taking 8mg. But this was just from a quick glance.

If you need any specific journal articles let me know the title and I can get you a copy.

 

[Reader2]

Hey, I’m the OP, locked myself out (and had a baby so time is hard to find now…) but I wanted to come back and update my experience on the whole high dose buprenorphine birth experience.

He was born at 41.3 weeks, 3.5kg. We were kept in neonatologie for 9 days, not because of withdrawal symptoms, but because breastfeeding was really hard and he was losing weight. In France they don’t let you go home until your baby gains weight. But the mother stays the baby in a private room, so that was a huge relief to me. (Studies show this is better for the baby, especially if you can breastfeed.)

I was so worried about every cry and every Moro-reflex jerk. I don’t know how much of it was normal baby stuff, really I don’t know. I think he was maybe a little harder to settle, but then everyone said their baby was the same, so… the baby didn’t score high enough for any morphine, not even close. His pupils didn’t ever seem massive, he wasn’t tearing, or excessively yawning, didn’t have diarrhoea or anything I knew to look for. He sneezed a few times a day, multiple times in a row, but it’s 4 months on and he still does this.

So all in, no morphine, no obvious withdrawal symptoms. As I said, he’s 4 months old now, started rolling over at 3 months and is always smiling. I hope this helps someone!

 

[n3ophy7e]

Hey, I’m the OP, locked myself out (and had a baby so time is hard to find now…) but I wanted to come back and update my experience on the whole high dose buprenorphine birth experience.

He was born at 41.3 weeks, 3.5kg. We were kept in neonatologie for 9 days, not because of withdrawal symptoms, but because breastfeeding was really hard and he was losing weight. In France they don’t let you go home until your baby gains weight. But the mother stays the baby in a private room, so that was a huge relief to me. (Studies show this is better for the baby, especially if you can breastfeed.)

I was so worried about every cry and every Moro-reflex jerk. I don’t know how much of it was normal baby stuff, really I don’t know. I think he was maybe a little harder to settle, but then everyone said their baby was the same, so… the baby didn’t score high enough for any morphine, not even close. His pupils didn’t ever seem massive, he wasn’t tearing, or excessively yawning, didn’t have diarrhoea or anything I knew to look for. He sneezed a few times a day, multiple times in a row, but it’s 4 months on and he still does this.

So all in, no morphine, no obvious withdrawal symptoms. As I said, he’s 4 months old now, started rolling over at 3 months and is always smiling. I hope this helps someone!

Firstly, congratulations!!! Is he your first bub? I gave birth to my first baby on the 30th January, so he is 5 months old now Being a mum is the absolute best thing ever.

Thank you so much for the update on how he went after delivery. It's very good to know, for anyone else in a similar situation in the future.