Babies As Unwilling Drug Addicts
Posted on Saturday 22 August 2015 and filed under Genevieve Tan Shu Thung , Health , Health: Children , Health: General , Health: News , Highlights , . You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry from your site
(hla) THERE is an increase in babies being admitted into neonatal intensive care units as they begin their life as unwilling addicts, reports WBALTV.com.
The condition suffered by these babies is medically
termed as 'neonatal abstinence syndrome'. According to the United States' National
Library of Medicine, neonatal abstinence syndrome occurs when a pregnant woman
takes opiate or narcotic drugs such as heroine, codeine, oxycodone (Oxycontin)
methadone or buprenorphine.
If basic medication such as Aspirin has been said to
be harmful to a developing baby, how much more damage can potent drugs cause? As
everything that enters the mother's body system passes through the placenta in the
womb, the baby can also involuntarily become addicted to the drugs.
Symptoms are said to usually manifest within 1 to 7
days after birth. They include diarrhoea, blotchy skin colouring, excessive
crying or sucking, fever, hyperactive reflexes, increased muscle tone, poor
feeding, rapid breathing, seizures, stuffy nose, sweating, tremors and
vomiting.
Nurse practitioner Kay Mathias who spends her time
caring for babies affected by their mother's addiction sympathises with them,
saying that "it is a tough way to
come into the world."
The babies suffering from such condition are treated
at designated hospitals to help them rid themselves of the drugs and cope with
the withdrawal symptoms.
Babies in this circumstance usually suffer from rough
neonatal abstinence syndrome. They can be on very high doses of drugs, which
are tapered down gradually every day, before being able to get off them
completely.
These infants are reported to be "very
irritable... (and) have a high-pitched cry. They have very high muscle tone,
tremors, (and) some, in the worst-case scenario, can actually seize," said
Dr. Monique Satpute, a neonatalogist at the Mount Washington Paediatric
Hospital.
Not only do they find difficulty in sleeping, it
will also be a challenge for the babies to gain weight. Satpute also added that
studies have shown that these children are at risk for learning disabilities.
Aside from using a drug treatment plan, hospitals
dealing with such cases also employ alternative methods such as massage, music
and light therapy to soothe and calm the babies.
The urgency of the situation is clear with Mount
Washington Paediatric Hospital claiming that the hospital has seen about 100
babies who needed drug treatment in 2014.
The pressing question is if the solution to this problem
is only to relieve these babies from the addiction. Mathias is of the opinion
that the problem lies with the environment: "Where are they going back to?
What kind of mothers are they going to have? What kind of violence are they
going to be subjected to? And these kinds of issues can cause more long-term
devastation on than the actual opiate itself."
Babies born to mothers addicted to drugs are likely
to suffer from birth defects, low birth weight, premature birth, small head
circumference, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and problems with
development and behaviour. The Mirror reported a shocking figure of at least 4
babies being born addicted to heroin, crack cocaine and other drugs. Based on
figures from the National Health Service organisations, they found that 464
babies were born to addicts in Wales, 738 in Scotland and 6,599 in England in
the last five years.
Copyright © 2015 Sandhya Maarga Holistic Living Resources
Holistic Living Annex (AUGUST 2015)
3 Responses for “ Babies As Unwilling Drug Addicts”
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Good article! Now I know what this is called.
I really pity the babies. Why despite being pregnant still want to take drugs. How come young people these days have no brains! Don't just ruin other people's lives just because you want to ruin yours. Being mothers, we must be responsible!!!
It should have been a really long journey and had to go through a lot of mental pressure. I am also pregnant and really nervous about it. Sometimes I feel anything might go wrong and stay alert all the time. Recently I have started following best pregnancy planning method.