Pregnant ladies on suboxone?

[Anonymom]

Hello, I would like to hear others with experience on this (hopefully positive!) .. I am currently 7 months pregnant and have been taking suboxone for maintenance/relapse prevention on and off for a few years. Since becoming pregnant, I have kept to doses lower than 1mg per day (Hard to say precisely how much each tiny crumb of an 8mg is.. But I'd say .25-.5mg is a good average). I am very careful with this and taking good prenatals and extra DHA as well as a healthy diet for baby. Otherwise I got off all other meds since becoming pregnant and my intent was to jump off the tiny dose after the first trimester to avoid problems with stopping ( like god forbid losing the baby.. Which I was told I couldn't conceive in the first place). Come second trimester, I continued to take the tiny doses mainly out of fear of stopping. My plan is to stop very very soon.. I must be done by the time I give birth! (I would like to be off for atleast a month before) I know that many women out there had remained on suboxone throughout their entire pregnancy and through delivery at doses up to 8 mgs a day and reported no complications and had healthy normal deliveries, healthy babies. I've searched other forums and read their stories/experiences. however, My only fear of stopping the .5 mg sub at this point is fear of it causing early labor.. I know my baby is strong and healthy, all of my tests thus far have been great.. I feel she would probably go unaffected by it at this point.. I just don't want to stimulate my body to go into labor early (I'm in the 30th week now). I know that a lot of the fear is also mental since the dose is really very very small.. I would love to hear back from women (or partners of) who has any personal experience with this. Any rude comments or judgements please keep to yourselves- I don't need any of that crap! Thanks in advance.

 

[Nools]

Hi ,

I'm new here so i'll try to be as helpful as i can, oh and i definitely won't be judging you as i don't know you or your story so couldn't possibly come up with a judgement that would be correct.

Firstly, and most importantly, if your doctor doesn't already know then you should let them know. I know that may not be easy but it is in both of your best interests. If they find out that you have been hiding the suboxone use from them they will be much less forgiving than if you let them know yourself. Suboxone is not normally used in pregnancy as the naloxone in the suboxone hasn't been thoroughly researched for use during pregnancy. That being said some Doctors do still continue use with suboxone i believe, but most make the switch to subutex.

Unfortunately i cannot give you a confirmation on whether it will be safe for you to stop your daily dose now or not. Most of the time everything will go just fine but occasionally things can go wrong when you least expect them to. That is why i would urge you to consider telling your doctor. If you are honest about your situation and you have a decent doctor it should be fine, the chance of CPS getting involved is slim.

Why are you so anxious to stop before birth? is it because of the chance of NAS? While there is still a chance for baby to experience wd's from bupe, they are definitely a lot easier than those compared with babies born to mums taking methadone. However i couldn't guarantee there would be no wd's, some babies are born to mums who take high doses of bupe or methadone and they experience no wd's at all, while ive seen babies whose mums take so little they should really not be affected, yet they are. Each situation is different and each mother and baby are different. It is unlikely that from such a small dose your baby would suffer any withdrawal symptoms, however unlikely it is though it is still possible. I wouldn't take the risk of stopping without speaking to someone who understands your medical history well and can keep a close eye on both of you.

I'm sorry , i know i haven't given you any advice that you really wanted to hear. I wanted to be friendly, not judgemental and as helpful as i could be. My best advice would still be, for the sake of both of your safety, to talk to your healthcare providers. I wish you luck and send you love.

 

[SixBuckets]

You definitely need to talk to your healthcare providers. DO NOT stop taking your dose without doing so. The risk of withdrawal-induced pre-term birth is very real, and it can happen with any opiate medication.

The above poster is correct in that the preferred OST for pregnant women is methadone. This is mostly because of lack of research on Suboxone (specifically naloxone) on a developing foetus. This does NOT mean that the drug is correlated with any problems in pregnancy, though, so don't freak out and take yourself off it.

Your doctor will probably try to facilitate an easy transition to methadone, depending on other factors in your pregnancy. Risks associated with methadone, such as neonatal withdrawal syndrome, are very much preferable to risks associated with withdrawal. Those don't just include pre-term birth, they include use of other drugs that may cause more harm. Even the best intentions about your pregnancy don't make you superwoman, and you wouldn't be the first person to relapse during high stress withdrawal from OST.

I know I sound a bit alarmist, but I totally think you're doing the right thing. Talk to your doctor and work out a treatment plan. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

 

[f33lg00d]

I think a switch to methadone would be more trouble than its worth. I'd look into volumetric dosing and try lowering your dose slowly. If your already in sub milligram levels, a slow taper should eliminate most withdrawal effects. This way you wont cause any shock that could effect the pregnancy.