cocaine and pregnancy: the evidence

Well, the good news is that, according to "What to expect when you're expecting," (a book written by the people responsible for this site) the ill-advised last-blast (not that I knew it at the time) before my nine month period as an incubator began , is unlikely to have done the bean any harm.

Cocaine in pregnancy, it appears, can cause a lot of things that sound alarming, (including abnormalities of the brain, skull, face, eyes heart, limbs, intestine and urinary tract, - pretty much anything then) but if we're talking stats then 3-5% of pregnancies will result in a baby with a birth defect of some kind anyway*.

*see here

As it happens, the nastiest things likely to happen occur with prolonged and repeated use in later pregnancy - such as possible developmental problems or the placenta breaking away and causing premature labour (which I'm quite sure was not the cause of Kerry Katona going into labour at 5 months.) However, even though it is generally agreed that its not big or clever to take cocaine in pregnancy, there's still an awful lot we don't know about its effects.

There isn't an obvious "dose response" mechanism for coke in pregnancy, (such as one snorted line equals a miscarriage, ten equals giving birth to a one-legged half-wit and a serious crack habit results in a deformed alien child). Its all a little bit more complex than that, which is doctor speak for - "we don't really know because most people taking coke don't tell us anyway". Which arse-backwardly, actually means its probably safer than we think.

Obviously if I give birth to a mong-child in November, the maternity-nazis can crow with glee and dance around the basinette singing 2I told you so", but for now, I'm not going to let one night of ignorant bliss worry me, because what would be the point in that?