has detrimental effects on the offspring leading to impaired growth
of the foetus as well as premature delivery, resulting in low birth
weight and increased perinatal mortality. Drug misuse in
pregnancy is associated with several childhood problems, including
domestic poverty, family breakdown and removal into care, neglect
and abuse, maladaptive early learning experiences, and lower
levels of academic achievement and social adjustment (Northern &
Yorkshire public health observatories., 2002).
There are three main factors that together determine the
harm associated with any drug of potential abuse: the physical
harm to the individual user caused by the drug; the tendency of the
drug to induce dependence; and the effects of drug use on families,
communities, and society (Nutt et al., 2007).
The aim of this review is to emphasize the importance of
this topic by describing the four drugs i.e. heroin, methadone,
barbiturate and cocaine which is having maximum propensity to
cause physical harm in terms of their properties, street names,
antenatal, foetal, neonatal effects along with the management
options of drugs when abused during pregnancy to reduce the
adverse outcomes on both pregnancy and infant.
Though there are few descriptive studies of rural and
urban drug abusing mothers hypothesizing the rural prevalence
lesser than the urban but there is no exact figure which reflects
rural prevalence at national and world wide level (Sarah et al.,
2008). This review article summarizes the harmful effects and
other existing information of these drugs and is the first step
towards giving the existing information about rural prevalence of
drug abuse during pregnancy and suggest what needs to be done to
improve the situation in rural settings.