Methadone For Mothers?

An hysterical mother just called me today about a situation with her daughter who is on fairly high daily doses of Methadone.  The woman is not as concerned about her daughter as she is her two month old granddaughter.   It just didn’t make sense that a doctor would be advising her daughter that it is totally fine to breast feed her baby while on Methadone.   In fact the doctor recommended it!

Thinking her daughter had made the methadone – breast feeding story up, the woman asked her own gynecologist about breast feeding while taking Methadone and the doctor’s reply was “I am constantly begging my breast feeding patients to go on methadone.”

Maybe we are old fashion, but I agree with the woman who called me – how on earth can this be safe?   Undoubtedly, these girls have drug abuse problems and are taking methadone as a replacement drug for some other opiate, but why not keep baby safe and simply get off drugs?   It might take a wean down program, but it could be done.  Baby’s safety is jeopardized when mommy is stumbling around with her attention diminished by any drug and most certainly, no baby should have methadone in their system.   Regardless of how much or how little is passing through to the breast milk, it just seems innately wrong.

This advice goes against the grain of what I have observed in the last 15 years of working in the field of drug treatment.   Every time I get a history from a client I glean a little more knowledge about addiction.  After interviewing hundreds of drug addicts I have come to learn that there are influences in early life that can more easily lead to addiction in the future.

To the point – one relevant pattern begins with an addicted mom – pre and post natal.   This is more common than one would think.  A few clients I interviewed never really knew their mom.  They had just heard stories about how she was an opiate addict and died early.  Though mother was gone and not there to influence the child, they reported to me that they easily acquired a taste for drugs early in life.  One gentleman reported that he was born addicted to pain killers passed through in embryo,   He went through withdrawals as a new born, according to what his father told him.   He was athletic his whole teenage life and never touched drugs, having been raised primarily by his father.   Then one day he took an opiate to help alleviate the pain from sports injury.  He told me from the moment he took that pill, he was instantly addicted to opiates again, even though he had not had any since birth.

Similarly it could stand to reason that an infant, receiving small portions of methadone or any drug through breast milk up to 12 times a day, could develop a “taste” for opioids which would fully manifest later in life.

In reviewing the history of the drug, it is even more bazaar that a drug that Nazi scientists found too unstable for their own people has made its way into the bodies of our mothers and their children.

BACKGROUND

In 1937-1938 two scientists employed by I.G Farben, a German chemical company, were assigned the task of developing a pain killer that would be less addictive than morphine.  When World War II was raging, the need became greater as morphine was more difficult to obtain for treatment of injuries in the field.   In 1941 I.G Farben filed a patent application for Polamidon, which eventually became known as Methadone.  Because of its severe side effects, including overdose and nausea, the Nazis dropped any idea of mass producing the drug.  They may have lost the war, but were smart on this count.

I.G. Farben developed the notorious Zyklon B. which was used in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.  At the Nuremberg trials, the company was found guilty of crimes against humanity and the International Military Tribunal ordered that the company be disbanded.  Unfortunately, the intellectual property of this evil company never disappeared.  Several small corporations were developed after the disbandment and the property of I. G. Farben was dispersed between them and other companies, including Eli-Lilly.

Eli-Lilly came into possession of Polamidon and named it Dolophine.  Urban legend has it that the drug was named after Adolph Hitler, but it is more likely that the name is derived from French – dolo (pain) and fin (end).

Early clinical trials by Eli Lilly had similar results as the Nazis and the drug was taken off the market because of reports of adverse reactions and did not resurface until the 60s.

In the 60s, the drug was renamed Methadone and was promoted as a treatment for opiate addicts.   The amounts recommended to treat addiction were (and still are) much higher than those given in the original German clinical trials.     Methadone clinics were born and thousands of people became chained to clinics, which only give one dose of the highly addictive drug a day.   It is well known that Methadone is sold on the street and that it is much harder to kick Methadone than Heroin or other drugs.

The use of the drug has expanded and is now used as a pain killer – contrary to what its creators found safe.  In fact in recent years, it has been linked to many fatal overdoses across the country.

Adverse side effects include: respiratory depression, shallow or decreased breathing, slow heart rate and cold clammy skin.  Methadone also makes a person feel high.  For obvious reasons, we wouldn’t want a mother to have any of these effects, even if she weren’t breast feeding.

It stands to reason that babies being fed Methadone through breast milk, continuously over time, could develop an addiction, even if the amount that passes through the milk at each feeding is small   If they don’t exhibit damage as babies, there is no way of knowing the effects long term.

Do we really want to take that chance? Call Narconon for information.