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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

morphine in pregnancy

7 replies

RobinB · 15/05/2007 15:09

Hi,

Between 7 and 8 weeks I had a threatened miscarriage - heavy bleeding and lots of pain/cramping. At the time the A & E department thought I was having a miscarriage and gave me several doses of morphine and oramorph. Thankfully I didn't lose baby and am now 31+3 weeks and really looking forward to new arrival. Was told at the time that wouldn't have harmed baby and both scans have been fine but I can't seem to find out any info about any possible side effects that the morphine may have caused can anyone give any advice?

OP posts:
mosschops30 · 15/05/2007 15:12

They will have selected the derivatives of morphine carefuly if they knew about your pregnancy.
You can have a general anaesthetic when pregnant they just use different drugs

birdseed · 15/05/2007 18:29

I have looked it up in the bnf (book doctors use for prescribing) and it only mentions risks in the 3rd trimester, which makes me think that it is ok in 1st, but can't be 100% sure.
The book is usually ultra-cautious about side effects etc, and so would have expected it to say if there were worrying effects in first trimester.

Can you ask your midwife to check for you? she might know more.

weepiglet2 · 15/05/2007 21:25

Morphine is one of the strong painkillers that is fine during pregnancy - I had morphine when I was seriously ill at 22/23 weeks and was so grateful as nothing else had touched the pain. Very unlikely to have any side effects for the babe. Morphine or pethidine often given during labour too.

GlitteringGoldie · 15/05/2007 21:46

I don't have any personal experience with this but here's what I've read -

"Animal studies have shown that morphine use during pregnancy might be associated with abnormalities. In humans, data show no evidence of malformative or foetotoxic effects of the drug. High doses administered at the end of pregnancy, even for brief periods of treatment, can cause respiratory depression in the newborn. Naloxone should be available to reverse possible respiratory failure in the newborn.

Chronic consumption of morphine by the mother during the last three months of pregnancy, regardless of the dose, can produce a withdrawal syndrome in the newborn characterized by irritability, vomiting, convulsions and increased lethality.

Therefore it is not advisable to use morphine during pregnancy except when no alternative pain treatments are available, taking into account the benefit for the mother and the potential risk for the foetus.

In the event of occasional consumption of high doses, chronic treatment or addition during late pregnancy, neonatal monitoring is recommended in order to prevent the risks of respiratory depression or withdrawal symptoms in the newborn.

Morphine is excreted in breast milk and breast-feeding is not recommended when receiving this medication. Withdrawal symptoms have been observed in breast-feeding infants when maternal administration of morphine has been stopped."

It seems it's totally fine in the quantities you were given over a short period of time, especially in your first trimester. I would not worry, your doctors knew you were pregnant and therefore the doses you were given would have been appropriate. Plus, as long as scans and everything else is looking good I think it's safe to just rest easy that everything is fine. Certainly the studies into morphine use would indicate that even prolonged use of this drug does not have long lasting effects on the baby such as birth defects or other long term health problems and you definitely did not have nearly enough to fall under this category anyway. Try not to worry!

RobinB · 16/05/2007 13:34

Thank you for all your supportive comments really helpful.

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madmumNika · 16/05/2007 13:57

I had morphine (2 or 3 doses) at 30 weeks pregnant with DS- to help with severe tummy pain which sadly turned out to be due to pre-eclampsia/HELLP syndrome. Even though DS was delivered 4 days later, the morphine has not affected him adversely, and he is now a crazy happy 2-year-old. Try not to worry though I know it's hard not to! xxx

Mum2FunkyDude · 16/05/2007 14:00

I had morphine and oramorph post c-section, nobody told me I couldn't give ds breastmilk! He is fine anyway.

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