Babies, Addicted and Drug-Exposed
Addicted babies are infants who are born physically dependent on drugs because of drug use by the mother during her pregnancy. Doctors consider babies addicted if they have a high level of exposure to drugs before birth. Each year in the United States some 320,000 babies are born exposed to alcohol and illegally used drugs while in theuterus, or in utero. A far larger number have been exposed in utero to sedatives and nicotine. Since the 1970s, an increasing number of women have begun to use both legal and illegal drugs. As a result, society is more aware of the problem of drug-exposed babies.
Drug-addicted women often use more than one substance at a time. Use of multiple drugs includes depressants (alcohol, marijuana, opioids such as heroin and methadone, and tranquilizers) and stimulants (cocaine and nicotine). The drugs are carried in the mother's blood across the placenta to the fetus. The baby's condition at birth depends on the substance the mother used, how much she used and how often, and the time between last use and delivery. The most severe withdrawal occurs in infants whose mothers have taken large amounts of drugs for a long time.
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