Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Pregnancy and Opioids
You may need to take medicines while you are pregnant. But not all medicines are safe during pregnancy. Many medicines carry risks for you, your baby, or both. Opioids, especially when misused, can cause problems for you and your baby while you are pregnant.
Opioids, sometimes called narcotics, are a type of drug. They include strong prescription pain relievers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and tramadol. The illegal drug heroin is also an opioid.
A health care provider may give you a prescription opioid to reduce pain after you have had a major injury or surgery. You may get them if you have severe pain from health conditions like cancer. Some providers prescribe them for chronic pain.
Prescription opioids used for pain relief are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by your provider. However, people who take opioids are at risk for opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose. These risks increase when these medicines are misused. Misuse can include taking your opioid medicines in greater amounts or more often than you are supposed to, using them to get high, or taking someone else's opioids.
Taking opioids during pregnancy can cause problems for you and your baby. The possible risks include:
- Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) - withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, seizures, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and poor feeding in newborns
- Neural tube defects - birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord
- Congenital heart defects - problems with the structure of the baby's heart
- Gastroschisis - a birth defect of the baby's abdomen, where the intestines stick outside of the body through a hole beside the belly button
- Loss of the baby, either miscarriage (before 20 weeks of pregnancy) or stillbirth (after 20 or more weeks)
- Preterm delivery - a birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy
- Stunted growth, leading to low birthweight
- Problems with the placenta (the organ that brings oxygen and nutrients to the baby)
If your provider suggests that you take opioids during pregnancy, you should first discuss the risks and benefits. Then if you both decide that you need to take the opioids, you should work together to try to minimize the risks. Some of the ways to do this include:
- Taking them for the shortest time possible
- Taking the lowest dose that will help you
- Carefully following your provider's instructions for taking the medicines
- Contacting your provider if you have side effects
- Going to all your follow-up appointments
If you have been taking opioids and you become pregnant, contact your provider. But don't stop taking the opioids on your own. If you suddenly stop taking opioids, it could cause severe health problems for you or your baby. In some cases, stopping suddenly during pregnancy may be more harmful than taking the medicines.
If you regularly take opioid medicines, you may be able to breastfeed. It depends on which medicine you are taking. But you should not breastfeed if you have HIV or take illegal drugs. Check with your provider before breastfeeding.
If you are pregnant and have an opioid use disorder, do not stop taking opioids suddenly. Instead, see your provider so you can get help. The treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) is called medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). For MOUD during pregnancy, providers prescribe either buprenorphine or methadone. These medicines can reduce your cravings and help prevent withdrawal.
Counseling, including behavioral therapies, can also help you to change your attitudes and behaviors related to drug use and build healthy life skills.
It sits within Substance Use and Disorders, Pregnancy and Reproduction and Female Reproductive System.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Pregnancy and Opioids
112 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Optimizing Pregnancy and Treatment Interventions for Moms 3.0University of Utah
- Multimodal Fetal and Placental Imaging and Biomarkers of Clinical Outcomes in Opioid Use DisorderSenthil Sadhasivam
- Fentanyl Intranasal for Retinopathy of Prematurity Screening in Preterm InfantsMarsha Campbell-Yeo
- Multimodal Opioid-Free Anesthesia in RIRSmurat sahin
- Opioid Use After Laparoscopic SalpingectomyJohns Hopkins University
- Suzetrigine for Opioid-Sparing Postoperative Analgesia Following Transvaginal Pelvic Reconstructive SurgeryUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Research already completed
- Erector Spinae Plane Block for Percutaneous NephrolithotomyFadime Tosun
- STEPuP: Prenatal Provider Education and Training to Improve Medication-assisted Treatment Use During PregnancyUniversity of Pittsburgh
- Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Expectant MothersT. John Winhusen, PhD
- mHealth to Help Pregnant and Postpartum Women in Recovery for Opioid Use DisorderWashington University School of Medicine
- Open Trial of Technology-Enhanced Behavioral Intervention for Buprenorphine Retention in Pregnant and Postpartum PeopleMedical University of South Carolina
- Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Expectant Mothers: Conceptual Model Assessments Sub-studyT. John Winhusen, PhD
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- About Opioid Use During PregnancyCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
- Opioid Use Disorder and PregnancyAmerican College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- Prescription Opioids during PregnancyMarch of Dimes Foundation
Symptoms
- Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS)Nemours Foundation
Related Issues
- Pregnancy Planning for Women Being Treated for Opioid Use DisorderSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Pregnancy and OpioidsNational Institutes of Health
Patient Handouts
- Treating Opioid Use Disorder During PregnancySubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Opioid-Related Disorders, Pregnancy. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Pregnancy and Opioids, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.