Drug epidemic claims tiny victims
Grant McArthur
July 13, 2007 01:00am
- Rapid rise in babies born with ice addiction
- Up to 114,000 Victorians using ice
- Babies being put on methadone programs
A FLOOD of the drug ice is harming, possibly killing, babies in increasing numbers.
Up to 40 children were born to Victorian users of ice and amphetamines last year, resulting in premature births, dangerously low birth weights, and distressed babies.
There were many miscarriages and stillbirths and some babies were born with an ice addiction.
In the past three years, the number of babies born to amphetamine users has tripled.
They now account for a third of births in the state's largest specialised drug-treatment maternity ward.
The Monash Medical Centre's Alcohol Drugs and Pregnancy Team has gone from treating virtually no amphetamine-troubled babies five years ago to at least 30 a year.
The new epidemic
Team manager Sally Johnston said speed was the most common amphetamine involved, but ice's increasing availability had led to more ice-related problems.
"We get a lot of women who have used ice during early pregnancy before they realised they were pregnant," she said.
"Two years ago, we never saw ice at all.
"Now we see women ... who have been using ice or who have used it occasionally during pregnancy.
"Five years ago, we rarely got anyone who had been using amphetamines, but nowadays we get almost as many as we do heroin."
Protocols for dealing with amphetamine withdrawal are still being drawn up between the Royal Women's Hospital, the Mercy Hospital for Women and the Monash Medical Centre, which specialise in drug-affected births.
Ms Johnston said treatment focused on premature-birth symptoms and low weight and included extra cuddling and feeding for babies distressed while withdrawing.
Ice is the street name for crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, a stimulant that speeds up messages going to the brain.
About 114,000 Victorians regularly use ice, which costs up to $50 a hit.
Ice is suspected of being a factor in dozens of major crimes in Victoria in recent years, including murders, rapes, violent armed holdups and vicious street assaults.
No figure is available for the number of ice crimes, but police say the problem is growing and offenders are harder to deal with than other drug users because of irrational rages and extreme paranoia.
The damage being done to babies by their mothers' drug habits is still largely unknown.
'Many miscarriages, stillbirths'
But the president of the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Christine Tippett, said there were many miscarriages and stillbirths.
"Women who are using ice seem to be significantly more likely to have abruption, or bleeding behind the placenta. So quite often, those babies are delivered early," she said.
"Also, the babies are often quite small, so it does affect fetal growth.
"There is no doubt that regular use of ice and other amphetamines is associated with fetal problems.
"Any babies who are born to mothers who are drug addicts we tend to watch very closely for neurological symptoms," she said.
"The issues don't stop because you are born a bit early. The ongoing issues of being a child growing up in that environment are potentially going to be much greater," Dr Tippett said.
"People who have a significant drug habit, a lot of them are really not in a socially stable situation.
"They don't have stable housing; often, they don't have relationships.
"So you are taking a baby home into an environment where it is far from optimal."
Babies given methadone
Those born with addictions to opiates such as heroin and methadone require small doses of the drugs for up to 28 days after birth.
Each year, the Royal Women's Hospital treats 60-80 pregnant women with drug addictions.
One in five of their children need small doses to kick their addictions.
The hospital is yet to treat a baby who has problems associated solely with ice.
But in the past year, the emergence of mothers using ice with other drugs left a handful of newborns needing treatment for amphetamines as well as for opiates.
Veronica Love, the hospital's alcohol and drug service manager, said: "Most or all of our women are multiple drug users.
"When they come to us, 85 per cent are opiate-dependent.
"But they also disclose they are using other drugs. There is some amphetamine use, but you are talking single figures," she said.
"We are now noticing that some of those babies who have been exposed to amphetamines go through a kind of withdrawal and are uncomfortable as well."
Half the women treated at the unit are also involved with the Department of Human Services.
But Ms Love said 80 per cent of mothers kept their babies and there were rarely any long-term health concerns after treatment.
She said amphetamine use usually stopped once a woman learned she was pregnant.
"That is because all of these women want healthy babies. They are the same as every other pregnant woman and want the best for their children," she said.
"A lot of those women, once they know they are pregnant, they will stop using a lot of their drugs."
