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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."
The Advertiser