Newly Born and Withdrawn

Newly Born and Withdrawing from Painkillers
In Bangor, Maine and across the country a very sad and common occurrence is taking place. A 3 year old baby was going through Opiate withdrawal and had to take Methadone, a drug known for heroin addiction, to ease his pain. This baby’s mother and abused Oxycotin for the first 12 weeks and tried to quit “cold turkey” which can be a very dangerous course and lead to a miscarriage. The baby had seizures in Utero as a result and the mother, Tonya, took treatment to keep her drug cravings low. As presecription drug abuse ravages the country doctors are faced with a very difficult challenge: newborns dependent on painkillers. While withdrawal treatment may have saved the pregnancy, the baby Mathew had to be drawn away from the drug. Infants like him may have stiff limbs, tremors and diahrea right at birth making the first days of life very excruciating. Many have to stay in the hospital for weeks to be eased away from the drug and driving up their cost of medical care. Few doctors are willing to even treat addicts, because there is no universially accepted standard on how to treat their babies. They must weigh whether to expose a fetus to powerful drugs is justifiable.
Dr. Hudak in Florida is helping to revise the pediatrics academy guidelines. He says “ There are commanilities, but no one knows what the best approach is”. Within states, hospitals may even have different approaches on babies exposed to painkillers. A recent study found that babies exposed to opiates in utero, in this case legally prescribed painkillers, had slightly higher rates of birth defects, including congenital heart defects. Experts say that also many drug users smoke and abuse alcohol as well as live in extreme poverty, so it’s difficult to pick out each one’s affect on a baby. At the end of the day it’s a mothers job to make sure she’s taking care of herself if she wants to become pregnant. Doctors will continue to face this difficult situation until drug abuse can be completely stopped.