Guidelines for the Identification and Management of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders in Pregnancy (PDF)

Download or read book Guidelines for the Identification and Management of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders in Pregnancy (PDF) written by World Health Organization and published by . This book was released on 2014-03-12 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Use of alcohol illicit drugs and other psychoactive substances during pregnancy can lead to multiple health andsocial problems for both mother and child. Use of alcohol during pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol syndromeand other harms such as spontaneous abortion stillbirth low birth weight prematurity and birth defects.Dependence on alcohol and other drugs can also severely impair an individual's functioning as a parent spouseor partner and instigate and trigger gender-based and domestic violence thus significantly affecting the physical mental and emotional development of children.Pregnancy may be an opportunity for women their partners and other people living in their household to changetheir patterns of alcohol and other substance use. Health workers providing care for women with substanceuse disorders during pregnancy need to understand the complexity of the woman's social mental and physicalproblems in order to provide appropriate advice and support throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period. These guidelines have been developed to enable professionals to assist women who are pregnant or haverecently had a child and who use alcohol or drugs or who have a substance use disorder to achieve healthyoutcomes for themselves and their fetus or infant. They have been developed in response to requests fromorganizations institutions and individuals for technical guidance on the identification and management of alcohol and other substance use and substance use disorders in pregnant women. They were developed in tandemwith the WHO recommendations for the prevention and management of tobacco use and second-hand smokeexposure in pregnancy. There are currently no global guidelines providing evidence-based recommendationsfor identifying and managing substance use and substance use disorders in pregnancy. While several highincome countries have developed national guidelines covering these issues low and middle income countriescurrently lack such guidance. This guideline has been primarily written for health care providers managing women from conception to birthand during the postnatal period and their infants.