Pandemic Saw Rise in Opioid Prescriptions Given After Childbirth

HealthDay News
Cara Muraz

New mothers who gave birth early in the pandemic filled far more opioid prescriptions than American women did previously, raising concerns about the potential for narcotic misuse.

About 38% of more than 460,000 women who gave birth from July 2018 through December 2020 were prescribed opioids for postpartum pain management, according to the University of Georgia study.

But there was a nearly 3 percentage point increase in the number of opioid prescriptions filled after March 2020 — when a national emergency was declared in the United States — than before the health crisis began.

The opioids these mothers were prescribed were also higher strength, the researchers noted.

"A lot of women receive opioids for treatment of pain during the postpartum period, but they are a particularly vulnerable group because many of them haven't used opioid medications before," said Emily Lawler, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs.

"That makes them high risk for potential opioid abuse," Lawler said in a university news release.

The findings were especially concerning because opioid overdose deaths increased during the pandemic, surpassing 100,000 deaths annually, the study authors said.

Opioids are typically a last resort for pain management after pregnancy.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends health care providers use an approach for postpartum pain that starts with a basic pain reliever like ibuprofen (such as Motrin or Advil) or acetaminophen (Tylenol). If that doesn't alleviate the pain, physicians are advised to then move to a low-strength opioid, such as codeine or tramadol.

READ MORE