Author: hatmaker510

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:37 pm

I haven’t had a child on sub or methadone (at all as a matter of fact), but I’ve learned much about opiates and pregnancy in the last 3 years just from being around this forum. Methadone has been used much longer than sub and has been studied in pregnant women as well. Suboxone/bupe hasn’t had but initial studies only, but they have been positive.

The following is what I gathered from my own research:

Methadone and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS):
Between 60% and 80% of infants born to mothers using methadone will experience NAS symptoms. Symptoms generally begin within the first 2 to 3 days, but can be delayed by as much as 4 weeks. Symptoms generally endure for between 10 and 21 days, but can last as long as 42 days.

Using buprenorphine during pregnancy can result in neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS):
In clinical studies, about half of babies born to women using buprenorphine suffered from NAS that was severe enough to merit treatment. Women in these studies may have been using other drugs that exacerbated the NAS, and so buprenorphine only may result in NAS less frequently.
Buprenorphine NAS symptoms most typically peaked within 3 or 4 days and dissipated within a week.

"While methadone is the accepted standard of care drug for pregnant opiate addicted women, doctors may, in some cases, decide that buprenorphine is a better choice. Initial case studies of buprenorphine (the active ingredient in Suboxone and Subutex) on pregnant women indicate that it is a well tolerated and effective medication for use by pregnant women."

As you can see, methadone has higher rates of NAS symptoms in newborns than sub does and can be delayed much longer.

This is just informational only and I’m not giving you my opinion one way or the other.

Some of this information is from this website: http://www.choosehelp.com/topics/suboxone-and-methadone/methadone-or-suboxone-during-pregnancy

I hope this helps.