The subject of prenatal opiate abuse is one that is often overlooked yet so important. The chance that a child might be denied it’s full potential and growth because of a bad decision is a chance that should not be taken. It was shown in a study done by Nygaard, E., Slinning, K., Moe, V., & Walhovd, K. B. (2016), that children who were exposed to opioid abuse in the prenatal period often had more developmental issues than those unexposed (p. 1). The question presented in this paper can be summed up in an answer provided by the above statement, however there is so much more to discuss. This paper will provide evidence to answer the question: what effect, if any, does opiate use by a mother have on an infant’s developing mind? First to be established is that there is an effect. The…show more content… This study was done by Burns, E. C., O'Driscoll, M., & Wason, G. (1996) and it proposes that methadone maintenance may be a help to being able to raise their own children (p. 113). This statement is of significance because while it’s shown there can be adverse effects of abuse during pregnancy, much of the issues arise during rearing. It alludes that methadone maintenance would allow recovering parents to keep their children. When Burns et al., (1996) discussed their findings, they found significantly smaller head circumferences in the exposed children. Besides that, there were no physical abnormalities or differences when compared to the control group. It was also found that they were as healthy as children in the control group (p. 118). Overall this article stated that again, that there was little difference between the control, and exposed group, and that, “Many of the opiate-abusing mothers in the study had been involved with Social Services when their child was younger”(Burns et al., 1996, p. 119), meaning that it was the parents sub-par care causing
