Drug and alcohol rehab can serve no higher purpose than helping a woman deal with drug and alcohol addiction while she is pregnant. The potential and real damage to the unborn child is monumental.  It is absolutely imperitive that someone in this situation seek treatment and immediately.  Rather than have me list off all the possible complications have a look at what the The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have to say.  The summary of this site is clear short and profound.

The future costs of medical treatment of the child born with damage from drug and alcohol abuse are staggering.  I personally am a proponent of allowing people to make a free choice, but this is one of the few areas where I do believe the courts should have the right to intervene.  We need to get any gal who is addicted and using while pregnant into a good alcohol and drug rehab program.  I stress the word good however.  If we are going to force some people into treatment then it is incumbent on us to make sure the drug programs are top notch.  Otherwise we are just another group of people shooting our mouths off to look good, but not really making a difference in the world.  Gals who are pregnant and expecting need free drug and alcohol rehab if they cannot afford it.  Governments have to step up and provide all the neccessary funding to insure free access.  Not sort of free access, but FREE access.  It is the only real sane and compassionate thing to do.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 7:39 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.