6 weeks pregnant

I am very new to this and have been doing a lot of research. I just found out I am pregnant, I have been on morphine for the last 3 years, I broke my back 6 years ago. I have done so much research and do not want my kids being born and having to go thru with draws, I am going to tapper my self down my PM doc is fine with it but not my OB doc says I could miss carry. I under stand that and was not going to do this till I was father along. I just want to know other opinion on this has anyone ever been in my spot. Have you every gone off morphine while expecting? Please any help would be great.

Hey,

Welcome to the CP forum......... and congrats on your pregnancy!

I understand how scary it is to find out you are pregnant while on medications (been there, done that myself)......

Can I ask what dose of morphine you are on? And are you on LA (long acting) vs. IR (instant release)?

As your OB pretty much has to tell you -- there is a risk of being on any medication, as you probably know, during that first trimester. That being said -- "perfect scenarios" usually don't exist -- and you have to just deal w/ what you have to right now............ as going "cold turkey" off your meds would pose a greater risk to your baby (in my, well researched, opinion).

So......... my advice would be to taper as far down as possible on your meds. If you can't get off all of your meds -- it would certainly be best if you could come down as low as possible. That's what I did. I wasn't able to get off the last 10/15mg of morphine........ so I was on that up until the birth.

Thankfully, I delivered two babies that did not have any, (or if they did, very little) - narcotic withdrawal. But that is a risk factor on these meds............ and one that you need to factor in to your decision making.

For me -- I was seen by a high risk OB who ultimately thought the least risk to the babies was for me to taper as low as possible........ and then we just did more monitoring etc.

You definitely need to have a supportive OB who will help you through the pregnancy.

Take care........ feel free to ask more questions.............. --Tina

Please remember that any pain you experience will be stressful for the baby. Any withdrawls will put undue stress on baby as well and that both of these situations can cause great harm to your unborn child.

Please do nothing without being under the care and direction of you OB dr. High risk obstetrics a
re trained and knowledgeable in tapering and what meds cause the least problems.

Dont feel guilty if you dont make it completely off and many CPers go on to deliver happy healthy baby' s even on low dose pain meds. As Tina said she did, I did and we have others here as well.

With some new meds such as subutex many have more options then we did even ten years ago. I was already on methadone when i got pregnant and its actully the drug of choice for many OB patients. I dropped under 30 mgs and my daughter had no withdrawls.

However,the clue is maintaining lowest possible. My grandson who was born to a drug addicted Mom being treated during pregnancy by the methadone clinic at 100 mgs a day was not so lucky. He had to be tapered with morphine and phenobarb from 6 hrs after birth to his 2 months check up. Not a pretty picture and i will always be grateful for a wonderful OB who knew what they were doing.

Congratulations.