Overdosing the Fetus and What that Means

Imagine you are taking your four year old child to a doctor. The doctor prescribes opiates for you for your anxiety and you give some to your child.  You are 130 pounds and your baby is thirty.   My oh my, you think how irresponsible, how terrible.  It is criminal!  But if I told you that one in four mothers might be doing that would you be shocked?  Yes.

Well, a new study finds exactly what I am writing about.  A report from the CDC (disease control) states that one-third of women of reproductive age have filled a prescription for opiate drugs in the last year, and every year for before that.  So what does that mean? It means that drugged mothers in large numbers are giving birth. They describe these numbers as "astonishing".    They believe it presents a great risk for birth defects, which I think is true.  But there is a more subtle effect; that of down regulating the who biology.  We need to know what percentage of these babies may not have obvious birth defects but are also much more vulnerable to depression.   Think now:  a 130 pound mother is stuffing herself with heavy drugs which reach a one pound fetus.  Clearly there is a massive down regulation of so much of his physical system, from heart and liver to hormones and stress and energy levels.  Then to make matters worse, there is a birth with again massive drugs given to the mother which affects the newborn;  more down regulation.  He has no chance.   He is passive and lethargic,  never has enough energy, has low blood pressure, perhaps a few allergies and cannot concentrate in school.

Ayayay; it is constant mystery to us all because no one realizes what those medications to the mother have done. The baby is heavily drugged before he is out on the world.  We understand if the mother hands her baby drugs but few understand if she directly transmits them into her baby's system while he is living in the womb.  She herself does not mean to but she doesn’t understand what she is doing.  After all, no one can see it happening. And so the baby is sluggish and is a future depressive but it is a sub rosa event.  Later, he cannot get out of bed to go to work; takes uppers and “speed” to get going, and we all run around trying to cure him of his depression.  Oh and what do we do? Well now we give him uppers and find it helps. Or we give him LSD, as the new wonder drug because  it temporarily lifts the depression; what it does is ease the depression by blasting open the cerebral gates.  Of course, anything that eases the repressive gates, lashed into action with the aid of our own opiates during womb-life, is going to help.

It is not rocket science; we are fighting heavy repression, the base of depression.  (see my article in the World Congress of Psychiatry 2013-14 on Depression http://www.activitas.org/index.php/nervosa/article/view/157).   I still believe that given a healthy birth and gestation there is little reason to suffer terrible afflictions.  Of course, heredity plays a role but not as great as we might think.  Epigenetics plays the predominant role, in my opinion.  We are dealing here with invisible forces that are not obvious to the eye so we ignore them.  Anything that a carrying mother takes will affect the biology of the baby.  It is a tiny little baby, helpless, trying desperately the escape the constant onslaught of  a mother’s constant smoking and drinking with not great success.  We need to teach that in schools so that students will not be so insouciant about it. While pregnant,the mother and child is as close as they ever will be again. Their biologies are very close so that the predominant state of the mother, anxious or depressed, will be reflected later on in the baby.  Take care, friends, and be a good friend to your baby.