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Crack Babies

Discussion in 'Cocaine' started by darkrebelchild, Mar 13, 2016.

  1. darkrebelchild

    darkrebelchild Community Champion

    There is this saying that when a pregnant woman is taking crack, she is bound to have a crack baby. Meaning the baby will be overweight and sometimes may fall behind in his developments or just have one or two disorders.

    How true is this about crack babies?
  2. yaitsjonny

    yaitsjonny Member

    Naturally, taking cocaine, or any other kind of substance while one is pregnant, is going to have severe negative side effects. Besides being developmentally challenged, babies born to mothers who were addicted to cocaine may be addicted to cocaine themselves. As such, the babies will suffer from severe withdrawal as well within their first few months of life.
  3. Davienna

    Davienna Community Champion

    It definitely will have serious implications. I don't know if it's true that the child would be addicted to cocaine. I believe that aspect has more to do with nurture than with nature. However, prevention is always better than cure , so expecting mothers should avoid using dangerous substances.
  4. SashaS

    SashaS Community Champion

    Any woman who is using drugs while pregnant will instantly regret it, that goes for pretty much every drug. If they are stupid enough to fall into that situation, then I would abort that child before it suffers for the rest of it's life. As @Davienna mentioned, prevention is better than cure. That's why guys and girls should be educated on the risks of taking drugs, especially while pregnant. Knowing all the horrible things that can happen should put anyone off from trying it.
  5. Steve Dawson

    Steve Dawson Community Champion

    It is true about babies being born addicted to crack, it also occurs when mothers take heroin throughout pregnancy and end up with babies addicted to heroin. Its more likely that a baby will be born addicted if the drug use continues in the later stages of pregnancy and sometimes the babies just don't make it past the withdrawal stage. They are the most innocent victims of drug use and I find the whole thing completely heartbreaking.
  6. GettingBetter

    GettingBetter Senior Contributor

    The vast majority of the reporting on this subject that got really heated in the 1980s has been shown to be untrue. Of course doing any drugs during pregnancy is risky and dangerous for the mother and the baby, but the stories of crack babies were greatly sensationalized and reported based on faulty, incomplete, or misrepresented information.

    Check it out:

    Note: The article also says the much bigger problem is fetal alcohol syndrome. It just doesn't make as inflammatory of a new story, so this problem goes unreported even though it's much more common.
  7. xTinx

    xTinx Community Champion

    Pregnant substance abusers may give birth to babies with defects but there's no clear proof these babies automatically become substance abusers too with crack particles in their system. Babies born from mothers with crack issues may grow up with health issues similar to babies with FAS.
  8. Mara

    Mara Community Champion

    Anything that the mother takes into her system will of course, affect the baby she's carrying. What the expectant mother consumes will be passed along to the baby. Harmful substances, like alcohol, heroin, and cocaine, should be avoided at all costs as they may jeopardize the life of the baby inside the womb.
  9. Nergaahl

    Nergaahl Community Champion

    Taking any kind of drug during or before pregnancy leads to birth complications and possible disorders of the baby. It's a risk you should never assume. You are basically ruining another human being's life, and you have no right to do so. It's not about you anymore, it's about the child.
  10. Tremmie

    Tremmie Community Champion

    Crack babies are something that can't be avoided if the mother uses crack or cocaine during the entire pregnancy or big part of it :( It's terrible, those babies are messed up for life. it's so unfair. I wish those women could get sterilized so they don't ruin the lives of those poor babies! Because that is exactly what they do... they ruin the life of their babies.
  11. ejorman1010

    ejorman1010 Senior Contributor

    There are studies that show crack use during pregnant to cause low birth weight, premature, among other ill effects on a baby. It is definitely not a good thing to take a drug like crack cocaine while pregnant. This appears to be one of those claims that is mostly true.
  12. explorerx7

    explorerx7 Senior Contributor

    The cocaine addiction may be passed from the mother to the baby during pregnancy. The effects of the exposure may be:
    Low birth rate
    Development delays
    Mental retardation
    Body abnormalities and malformations
    The baby may also become jittery and fussy after birth because of the withdrawal process from being addicted to cocaine in the womb.
    Research has concluded that there are infants who are tested positive for cocaine at birth had a higher incidence of sudden infant death syndrome.
  13. Tsky45

    Tsky45 Community Champion

    From what I've heard these babies are born with a dependency on crack. This is really terrible for a child to have to deal with this and not by choice. I hope that there will be studies that can find a cure to this condition. I don't think that finding a cure for this is impossible, if they can find ways to send satellites into space and take pictures of everything, they can find a cure for anything.