Cocaine in pregnancy: analysis of fetal risk

During the last decades there has been a substantial increase in the recreational use of cocaine in young adults and parallelly there has been an increase of its use by pregnant women. We analyzed all published papers on cocaine use in pregnancy and found that for most endpoints studied (eg, prematurity, head circumference) there were many studies showing effects and many showing no effects. Upon meta-analysis, most of these effects could not be shown significant when compared to control groups. In a prospective study in Toronto, babies exposed to cocaine during the first trimester only had Bayley scores at 18-mo of life that were identical to unexposed babies or to those exposed to canabinoids. Motherisk presently counsels women who discontinue cocaine use in the first trimester of pregnancy that there is no increased developmental risk for the baby.