ANDERSON — About 20 percent of babies delivered at Community Hospital Anderson in 2016 were exposed to drugs before birth, and about 2.5 percent of those babies had to be treated to help with withdrawal.
But don’t worry. It’s not as bad as it might sound.
The numbers include mothers who were using pain medications and other medications, such as antidepressants, that were prescribed by their physicians. Some of those mothers were trying to get past their addiction by taking suboxone or subutex through medically-assisted therapy.
Rosie LePage, clinical manager of Community’s Women's & Children's Services, said they don’t track how many of the babies who were exposed to drugs were from mothers who abuse drugs or those just following doctor’s orders.
The numbers presented for 2016 are higher than the numbers in 2015, which show less than 1 percent had to be treated for drug withdrawal in 2015.
While St. Vincent Anderson Regional Hospital doesn’t track the number of infants who have to be treated for drug withdrawal, officials estimated about 5 percent of the 400 births each year are babies who have to be treated. Marlene Carey, vice president of marketing and communications at St. Vincent Anderson, said the obstetrician department has not seen an increase in the amount of babies who have to be treated.
LePage said she thinks part of the increase at Community Hospital Anderson is because of how their screening process has changed. She also thinks the stigma, which she calls the "shame-and-blame game," has been reduced.
“We’re all realizing that this is happening, and it needs to be discussed and talked about, so moms are being a little more open and upfront,” she said.
A misconception about mothers who use certain medications or drugs that can have effects on their newborns is that they should immediately stop taking the drugs once they know they are pregnant. LePage said that is actually the wrong thing to do once pregnant.
“You cannot allow a mother to detox during pregnancy,” she said. “It puts mom at risk, and it definitely puts baby at risk. You don’t want a baby having seizures (from withdrawal) in utero.”
For the 196 infants born in 2016 at Community Hospital Anderson who had been exposed to drugs, they had to be monitored at the hospital for longer periods of time than a normally healthy infant with a hospital stay of up to seven days. During that time, they are monitored by nurses and given extra attention so they are comforted.
LePage said if a baby does need treatment to get through withdrawal, they can be at the hospital anywhere from a week to six weeks, receiving small doses of morphine to wean the baby off of whatever drug they were getting before birth. The babies that have to stay longer, such as close to six weeks, generally were affected by more than one drug while in the womb.
While the babies should be weaned off the drugs when they arrive at home, mothers are educated about symptoms for which to watch out.
When Community Hospital Anderson comes across mothers who are struggling with drug addiction, they try to connect to them to resources to get them into a rehabilitation program, LePage said.
Michele Hockwalt, marketing and communications manager at Community Hospital Anderson, said it isn’t the health care providers’ position to judge mothers at the end of the day.
“As health care providers, our primary concern is the health of the mother and the health of the baby and getting them the resources they need,” he said.