For many families, the birth of an infant is an amazing, life-changing event that forever alters the landscape of the household. For mothers who are addicted to illicit substances, drink alcohol, or even smoke during their pregnancy, however, life can be altered in ways that are completely unexpected. The life that develops during a pregnancy is very sensitive to the dietary and lifestyle habits of the mother who is carrying it. Just as the nutrition that a mother takes in will be passed along to the developing child, so will the addictive drugs that a mother takes as well.
Statistics on Drug Addicted Babies
1. The number of babies that are estimated to be born every year with a dependency to at least one substance: 440,000.
2. Based on hospitalization figures from 2012, about 5 out of every 1,000 births in the United States is that of a drug addicted baby.
3. The rate of infants being born with a drug addiction is 3x higher than the US national average in Massachusetts.
4. In Vermont, the number is 34.4 babies out of every 1,000 births in 2012, one of the highest rates in the country.
5. Many states in the US do not require drug-dependent babies to be recorded at birth.
6. There is 1 baby born every hour in the United States that is suffering from opiate withdrawal.
7. The average length of a hospital stay for an infant born with a drug addiction is 16.4 days, compared with the average stay of 3.3 days when an addiction is not present.
8. $53,400. That’s the average cost of a hospital stay for an infant who is born with opiate withdrawal or other drug dependency issues.
9. 77.6% of the additional costs of a hospital stay for an infant due to drug dependency are paid by Medicare or Medicaid, showing a direct correlation between lower incomes, drug abuse, and drug addicted babies.
10. The rate of maternal opiate use per 1,000 hospital births was 1.19 in 2000, 1.26 in 2003, 2.52 in 2006, and 5.63 in 2009.
11. The total number of drug addicted babies is up 11% over the last 5 years.
12. Babies who are born with a drug dependency are often in pain. They don’t eat or sleep well, typically have a fever, will vomit, and are generally inconsolable.
13. 70% of chronic opiate users will have a baby that is born dependent.
14. From 2002 to 2010, the number of people abusing prescription painkillers rose by 75%.
15. Certain counties in Kentucky report a 330 percent increase in addicted infants being born.
16. In West Virginia, some hospitals are seeing drug addicted babies in 1 out of every 13 births.
17. In 2009, more than 13,000 infants across the country were born with an addiction to prescription drugs.
18. Among pregnant women aged 15-44, 5.4% were current illicit drug users based on data averaged across 2012 and 2013.
19. The rate of current illicit drug use in the combined 2012-2013 data was 14.6 percent among pregnant women in the 15 to 17 age demographic.
20. 2.7% of all pregnant women report having an episode of binge drinking during their pregnancy.
Increasing Your Risks
The biggest risk of drinking, smoking, or doing drugs while pregnant is that a birth defect or genetic disorder will develop because of it. The fetus is very fragile during its initial development and the cellular growth it experiences can be dramatically altered with unhealthy substances in the mother’s bloodstream. If a fetus can get around the issue of a birth defect or genetic disorder and still be healthy, then a mother taking addictive drugs will create an addiction within their child that will be present at birth.
The issue with drug addicted babies is the fact that they will almost immediately go through withdrawal symptoms after being born because they no longer have a supply of the drug in question. Many of these effects can last for a long time, especially if the issue is not identified at birth. Exposure to these substances can also make itself present later on in life and contribute to developmental and behavioral health issues.
Many mothers are afraid to disclose that they used illicit substances during their pregnancy because of the fear that a child protection services worker will come to take the child. This may cause even more harm to the child because it usually creates a delay in adequate medical services being received. That’s why knowing these statistics is so important.
Impact and Long Term Effects
Maybe the worst part about giving birth to a drug addicted baby is how that addiction must be treated. Doctors must often give children a narcotic drug to help relieve the symptoms of the addiction. This may create a secondary addiction that medical professionals can then work to use to wean a child off of their dependencies.
Addiction in the United States is a serious problem. Painkillers that are based on narcotics are often the drug of choice and the effects on an infant can be absolutely devastating. Doctors are forced to give infants morphine if they are born with a drug addiction and the administration of the drug can cause children to stop breathing.
When times are difficult, drugs seem like an easy way to escape from a tough world. This isn’t effective coping and if a mother should get pregnant while addicted to the medication, then the world becomes an even tougher place to be for their child. Identifying high risk families, implementing services that can help them beat drug addictions, and even paying for therapy may be cheaper than the medical costs that are being paid right now.
We need to do something. Hundreds of thousands of infants are being born every year with pain because of a drug addiction. Instead of being reactive to this situation, it is time to start being proactive. The future of millions of children over the next decade depends on it.