I'm pregnant!

suboxdoc · Site Admin Joined: 25 Feb 2008 Posts: 30

Over the past year I have had 4 patients on suboxone who have become pregnant. So far, one has delivered and the other three are doing fine. The patient who has delivered stayed on suboxone throughout her pregnancy, and is still taking it. Of the other three, two plan to stay on suboxone, and one plans to taper off by the time of delivery. I asked them to use this forum to let us know how things are going-- hopefully we will here from them.

I do not know of any specific danger to the baby from suboxone. With methadone the general practice is to maintain the mother on methadone, as that is safer than having her relapse to less predictable drugs. I think that it is preferable to use subutex over suboxone so that the fetus is exposed only to one drug (buprenorphine), not two. I have not seen reports of fetal malformation secondary to opiates or buprenorphine.

Any woman who takes suboxone and who is pregnant MUST inform the OB/GYN that she is taking the drug. It is also important that the nurses and anesthesiologist at the hospital are aware as well. A c-section can be done with either a general or regional anesthetic (spinal or epidural) in the presence of suboxone-- the main problem would be with pain control after delivery. Pain can be blocked effectively with an epidural without any problem from the suboxone, but oral opiates will not be effective. This won't be a big problem for a vaginal delivery, but this could cause some problems with pain control in the case of a c-section. A patient may need to consider staying in the hospital an extra day or two, to allow for the use of an epidural to reduce pain.