Heartbreaking: Babies Born Addicted

Lyndsey Fiddler of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, doesn’t remember killing her baby girl.

Fiddler gave birth to her daughter, Maggie, while struggling with an addiction to meth and other drugs. Her baby suffered from withdrawal symptoms from the moment she was born — but the doctors neglected to alert Child Protective Services and sent mother and infant home without supervision. Ten days later, Fiddler got high on meth and mistook her newborn for a load of laundry. She put her in the washing machine to drown.

Fiddler now faces four years in jail for manslaughter. However, as much as this case demonstrates extreme neglect and abuse — it’s sadly not that unusual.

Physicians prescribed as many as 259 million opioids in 2012 — enough for every American adult to have a bottle at home.

Every 25 minutes, a baby with opioid dependence is born, a new study has tragically found. Nearly 22,000 infants were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome — NAS — in 2012, and that’s five times the number of babies with NAS in 2000, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. These infants suffer from a litany of maladies: low birth weight (less than five pounds, eight ounces), respiratory problems, seizures, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and poor feeding ability. Symptoms can persist as long as six months after birth.

Even though the opioid epidemic continues to spiral out of control, some doctors are still handing out many, many prescriptions. Doctors prescribed as many as 259 million opioids in 2012, which is enough for every American adult to have a bottle at home.

But it’s not just the adults at risk here. Infants with NAS must usually receive IV fluids to keep them hydrated because of excessive vomiting and diarrhea. The typical hospital stay for these babies stretches to 17 days (compared to two days for other newborns), and that extra time costs hospitals as much as $1.5 billion.

Related: Questioning ‘Safe Spaces’ for Addicts

Mothers who are addicted to opioids can’t just stop when they find out they’re pregnant. Quitting the drugs too suddenly can cause severe problems for babies — including death. And mothers who go on methadone to curb their addictions will probably still give birth to addicted babies.

[lz_bulleted_list title=”Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome” source=”http://www.livescience.com”]2.8 cases per 1,000 births in 2008|7.3 cases per 1,000 births in 2013|Overall, 27,315 babies were born in the U.S. with neonatal abstinence syndrome in 2013[/lz_bulleted_list]

That’s why we need solutions on the front end — not reactionary solutions after these babies are born.

“Too often in our health system, we react to problems instead of forging public health solutions. Imagine if we were able to use the dollars spent to treat NAS on improving public health systems aimed at preventing opioid misuse and improving access to drug treatment for mothers,” said Stephen Patrick, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy at Vanderbilt, in a media release.

These babies need more of a fighting chance. The care and treatment in hospitals can help them get through withdrawal, but too many of them are dying at home because of families ill-equipped to care for them. They often suffocate or perish from neglect.

Prevention starts with the mothers. It starts at home. It starts with families. Congress passed a bill last summer to allocate $581 million in funding to address opioid abuse. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the billions spent in treatment centers every year.

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From every angle, we’re still not doing enough to address the opioid problem in this country — and it’s the most vulnerable members of the population who are suffering for it.