OB/GYN: Addicted babies 'common'

Dr. Breton Juberg, an OB/GYN at Loris Community Hospital said 40 to 50% of the women he's seen with limited or no prenatal care end up testing positive for some sort of drug abuse.

Juberg said, "Over the course of the past twelve months, we've had at least twenty to thirty patients test positive for drugs, it's extremely common.” The problem was common enough that Juberg formed a task force to help fight the problem.

"The obstetricians, the pediatricians, the local law enforcement, the local district attorney's office and DSS and we just realized that this is a huge problem and we needed to do something and we try to prosecute these mother's." Juberg said.

15th Judicial Circuit Court Solicitor Greg Hembree said prosecution is not always the end goal in unlawful neglect or homicide by child abuse cases. Hembree said a protocol was developed by the attorney general’s office for those types of cases and part of it may include amnesty.

Hembree said if the mother is addicted to drugs and can prove she’s making an effort to get off drugs, his office won’t prosecute. Hembree said the objective is to change people’s conduct and get healthy babies.

Juberg said prenatal care is extremely important when it comes to having a healthy baby and if the mother waits until there a medical issue that forces her to see a doctor, it may be too late.

"Not only her life, but the life of the baby is in jeopardy and we've had several cases of a fetal death from drug use, especially cocaine." Juberg said.

Labor and deliver nurse Carla Hardee said getting some mother's to realize the benefits of prenatal care and of course not doing drugs is key, especially when she's seen a lot of babies born addicted to drugs and having to go through withdrawal.

You do spend more one on one time with those babies because they are having a harder time, they need more attention, there are certain things that they go through that you kind of look for to know if withdrawals are happening or not. Inconsolable crying, the need to constantly suck to look for satisfaction that they're not getting anymore, they're just inconsolable a lot of times and they can't tell us what's hurting or what's going wrong, so it's really hard for us to put a finger on exactly what it is that's going on.

They're human, those babies are alive from the moment they have the first heartbeat and these women need to know that they're actually hurting these infants, not only are they hurting them, but they're hurting themselves."

Juberg said the message is, this is an issue that will not be tolerated and mothers should know they may be tested and there could be consequences, up to and including prosecution. And he said the biggest consequence of all might be a baby born with permanent brain damage.

Hembree said this is an issue people should care about because if a woman gives birth to a baby that's unhealthy because of addiction and doesn't have insurance, taxpayers will likely foot the bill for long term medical care. And, he said we all have an obligation to look out for those who cannot care for themselves and babies are the most vulnerable.