The opioid crisis is NOT being experienced just by people who are addicted to drugs, but there also is a crisis among the newborn babies that are born through their drug-addicted moms. According to an article in The New York Times, titled “A Tide of Opioid-Dependent Newborns Forces Doctors to Rethink Treatment,” the number of babies being born in the United States with a “dependency on drugs” has increased by fivefold between 2003 and 2012.
Further, the overuse of opioids is cited to be the main cause. In fact, the article states that in Kentucky alone, 15 of every 1000 babies born are drug dependent at birth.
The newborn babies are usually shipped off to clinics for intervention and separated from their moms. However, they are finding that it only makes matters worse to separate the babies from their moms. Specifically, they are finding that: “separating newborns in withdrawal can slow the infants’ recovery, studies show, and undermine an already fragile parenting relationship. When mothers are close at hand, infants in withdrawal require less medication and fewer costly days in intensive care.”
To read more about this crisis, check out the articles below:
