NEWS: Advertiser - 25/12/2006 'Newborn addicts double in five years'

Newborn addicts double in five years
By Kara Phillips
December 25, 2006 12:00am

THE number of babies born addicted to heroin, methadone or amphetamines every month has almost doubled in the past five years in South Australia's top maternity hospitals.

The Women's and Children's Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre treat between six and eight newborns each month for drug addictions that started when they were in the womb.

Women's and Children's neonatal medicine director, Dr Ross Haslam, said up to 10 mothers on "drugs of addiction" give birth at the hospital each month.

"About three or four of those newborns require treatment, which is double what we were seeing about five years ago," he said.

He said in 2001/02 about two babies a month needed treatment.

A Flinders Medical Centre spokesman said the figures were similar, with about three to four babies showing signs of withdrawal each month.

The workload and attention required for each of those babies was significant.

Dr Haslam said the biggest rise had been in amphetamine use among pregnant women, which could affect the baby's development before birth and had been linked with early labour and miscarriage.

Amphetamines also caused the heart rate of mother and baby to increase and could lead to smaller birth weight in newborns.

It could take up to eight weeks to wean a baby from drugs, often requiring doses of morphine every four hours to dull the painful symptoms. "We're coping but we wouldn't want it to get any worse," Dr Haslam said.

Babies addicted to drugs often were in hospital for three to six weeks for treatment.

"The symptoms could be life threatening if it goes untreated," Dr Haslam said.

"The babies are irritable, can't sleep, sweat and feed irregularly.

"It is terribly distressing."

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Drug addict babies toughest battlers
February 20, 2007

ONE in 20 critically ill babies cared for in Australia's neonatal units is born to a drug-addicted mother, research shows.

These newborns are more likely to be smaller, premature and saddled with a serious medical condition than other sick babies, according to the first hospital-based study of its kind, published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.

But these babies have a better survival rate than the rest, probably because the stress of their mother's lifestyle forces them to mature faster.

Researchers found that 5.1 per cent of the 6000 babies cared for in 10 neonatal intensive care units in NSW and ACT between 2001 and 2003 had substance-abusing mothers.

These mothers tended to be younger - an average age of 26 rather than 30 - Aboriginal, and one in four were using more than one class of illicit drug.

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Drug addicts' babies hardier
Jane Metlikovec, health reporter
February 20, 2007 12:00am

BABIES born to drug-addicted mothers are more likely to survive than others in neonatal care.

Surprising new Australian research has revealed that one in every 20 babies in hospital neonatal units is born to a drug addict.

The study, by Dr Ken Lui of the NSW Royal Hospital for Women, found that while babies of drug users were likelier to be premature, have smaller heads and be underweight, survival chances were better than other babies in neonatal care.

The reason is unclear, but might be because the drugs made them mature faster, Dr Lui said.

It might also be easier to treat ailments such as chronic lung disease in babies born to drug users.

"Their mortality rate certainly is surprising and unusual," Dr Lui said. "We're not sure why, but it might be that the stress from their mothers' lifestyle or drug use gives them a superior survival rate.

"For those with chronic lung disease, we give them steroids and they will improve."

Researchers found that 5.1 per cent of the 6000 babies cared for in 10 neonatal intensive care units in NSW and ACT between 2001 and 2003 had drug-abusing mothers.

Drug-exposed babies were more inclined to have chronic lung disease, gastrointestinal disease, an eye condition that causes blindness and heart defects.

They spent about 50 days in neonatal care, compared with about 35 days for those with mothers who didn't take drugs.

But the extended hospital stays for drug-exposed babies were often caused not by medical issues but, rather, parental homelessness or concerns for the child's welfare, the report said.

Their mothers tended to be younger -- with an average age of 26 -- as against 30 overall.

One in four used more than one drug, with more than half using opiates. More than 85 per cent of drug-using mothers were in methadone programs.

City mothers were more likely to be addicted to opiates; marijuana was the drug most commonly used by rural women.

The report was in the latest Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.

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Dr Platypuss would you care to comment about your fellow peer?

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Though i'm confused, overral opiate addiction rates have been falling, how could there be an increase in babies born addicted to heroin?

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THE number of babies born addicted to heroin, methadone or amphetamines every month has almost doubled in the past five years in South Australia's top maternity hospitals...

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Drug impact on foetuses to be examined
March 13, 2007 - 12:59PM

The impact of illicit drug use on unborn children, including foetal development and infant drug addiction, will be examined by a federal parliamentary committee in Perth on Wednesday.

The House of Representatives Families Committee will on Wednesday conduct a public hearing in Perth as part of its wider inquiry into the impact of illicit drugs on families.

Committee chair Bronwyn Bishop said it was important to hear from practitioners at the Perth's King Edward Memorial Hospital, where an estimated seven per cent of babies are born with drug dependency problems because of maternal drug use.

They will give evidence on how maternal use of illicit drugs such as amphetamine, heroin, ecstasy and ice can affect foetal development and infant health.

"Illicit drug use can be destructive for all types of families, but it is particularly sad when the victims are newborn children," Mrs Bishop said in a statement.

"We need to better prevent and treat drug addiction and I look forward to the information to come out of the public hearing."

Also giving evidence will be the National Drug Research Institute of Curtin University, the Drug and Alcohol Office of Western Australia, the WA Parent Drug Information Service and the Coalition Against Drugs WA.

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Jump in pregnant women on drugs
Adam Cresswell, Health editor
March 14, 2007

THE numbers of pregnant women addicted to illegal drugs appears to be soaring - to the extent that one leading teaching hospital has recorded a more than 300 per cent increase in referrals to its antenatal chemical-dependency clinic.
The figures - due to be presented in evidence today to a federal parliamentary committee - are likely to fuel calls for more effective anti-drugs messages.

Experts from Perth's King Edward Memorial Hospital, the only centre for seriously ill newborns in Western Australia, will tell the House of Representatives Family and Human Services Committee that amphetamines are behind most of the increase, and say the problem is affecting the entire country.

Claire Henderson, a clinical midwife consultant and co-ordinator of the hospital's chemical dependency service, told The Australian about 7 per cent of the mothers giving birth at, or referred to, the hospital were addicted to illicit drugs.

About 5700 women are expected to give birth at the hospital this year.

In 2002-03, the clinic saw about 60 pregnant women with drug dependence, but that has since soared to 270 - and to as much as 400 if referrals from other hospitals are factored in.

Driving much of this increase was the use of amphetamines, including methamphetamine, drugs that Mrs Henderson said were associated with socio-economic factors such as poverty and poor education.

"We have seen a huge increase in problematic amphetamine misuse (in pregnant women)," she said. "Also our numbers are increasing around alcohol misuse."

Amphetamine use in pregnancy can cause serious bleeding, while excessive alcohol intake can cause irreversible developmental problems known as fetal alcohol syndrome.

Karen Simmer, director of neonatal care at King Edward and Princess Margaret hospitals, said illicit drug use by pregnant women was "a very big problem in Australia and many other countries" and agreed it appeared to be getting worse, reflecting drug use trends in the wider community.

"This isn't something unique to King Edward," Professor Simmer said.

Lucy Burns, a research fellow at the University of NSW and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, did a study last year that found a big increase in births to methadone-addicted mothers in NSW over 10 years.

She said that in 1992 there had been about 60 births to such mothers, but this had rocketed to 450 by 2002. "Our research, which analysed pregnant women in methadone treatment, has shown a significant increase over a 10-year period," Dr Burns said.

However, she said that rise probably reflected greater success in identifying and treating patients as well as rising drug use.

If a mother is on methadone treatment for heroin addiction, her baby may go into withdrawal after birth, causing symptoms including restlessness, difficulty sleeping, high-pitched crying, fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.

In severe cases, such babies need to be given morphine and weaned off it gradually over as long as four weeks.

Committee chairwoman Bronwyn Bishop said the issue of maternal addiction was "a very big problem" and blamed broadcasters - singling out the ABC - for sending "soft messages" on illicit drugs.

Ms Bishop said there was a case to mount a publicity campaign to rival the anti-AIDS "Grim Reaper" commercials of the 1980s.

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