Many people use cocaine today. It can be introduced into the body by three primary routes sniffing, smoking or injecting into a vein. When smoked, it is called crack. When it is injected directly into a vein, it is called freebasing. Cocaine use by a pregnant woman can be very serious for the developing baby.
Cocaine is a stimulant and increases the user's heart rate and blood pressure.
Women who use the drug during pregnancy have a higher rate of placental abruption, the premature separation of the placenta from the uterus. If you use cocaine during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, you run a higher risk of miscarriage. Cocaine can also cause severe deformities in a fetus. The type of defect it causes depends on the point at which cocaine is used in the pregnancy. Infants born to mothers who use cocaine during pregnancy have been found to have long-term mental deficiencies.