very scared

[Prue]

I am in my third trimester of pregnancy and I had been on methadone for chronic pain for up to 2 years before hand. When I found out I was pregnant the first ob did not want me to stop the drug but sent me out to abounch of other doctors to deal with it. None of them wanted to they thought it was up to the ob to take over. He didn't want to. However none of the told me to stop taking the drug until finally it came down to the original doctor who had me on it and he didn't want to maitnence it. So he told me to stop it and take darvocet. Well now i have abunch of info saying that stopping the drug during pregnancy is very bad for the baby and it should never be done. Im just wondering if there is anyone who had a similar experience. HAs anyone had to be on methadone during a pregnancy?

[51anna]

Hi Prue,

I can't give you any information on methadone but I do want to welcome you to the Women's forum.

I hope there will be others along very soon who have some experience with methadone.

[Rowan]

Hello Prue, and I echo Anna's welcome to you. I do not have experience with methadone either. Just keep checking in - someone will be along who does.
Keep posting and let us know how you are doing you've found a great site.

Love Rowan

[Evanna]

I detoxed off methadone during my pregnancy. I was on 120ml daily maintenance (plus street drugs) when i discovered i was 3 months into a pregnancy. By 5 months i was stabilised on the methadone insofar as i had stopped using in top. At this point i started de-toxing slowly and with medical supervision. At around 8 months i took my last dose of methadone and was totally abstinent from all drugs. My son had detoxed in the womb and was absolutely fine. General medical consensus seems to be that taken slowly methadone detox while pregnancy presents virtually no risk to the baby.

The risk of detox while pregnant is really in terms of the mother's stability. If the mum is unable to deal with detoxing and goes back to erratic drug use then this will obviously be detrimental to both mother and unborn child. In this scenario it may be better to keep mum stable and detox the baby after birth. Personally i didnt feel i could cope with the knowledge that i was cause of newborn baby withdrawing. I had my own family issues that impacted on this thinking. NA was terrific for me at this time as the fellowship held my stability when i was completely unable to. But this is a real personal decision and not necessarily the right one for someone else. Whatever happens it will be medically managed.

Cant comment on the drug Darvocet as it is outside of my experience. But i can say that medically managed with care detoxing from methadone while pregnant can be safely done. I believe this is particularily true after the first three months of pregnancy.

Welcome to the forum Prue. Whatever you decide i know you will need lots of support. What you are going through is some scary stuff. So i am glad you found this forum. I dont know if you go to NA but i know that the fellowship saved my life at that time.

Warmest wishes
Evanna.