Mothers’ painkiller addiction passed to babies

 Women who are pregnant with an addiction are passing the addiction onto their unborn child. The drug travels from the mother to their child through the placenta, which leads to the child becoming addicted.

Doctors and nurses at St. Joseph Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario are spending weeks with babies born addicted, while the babies go through their withdrawals. The withdrawal stage can be dangerous to the baby; in some extreme cases the baby can have a seizure, in some cases though the baby has difficulties feeding because of vomiting and diarrhea, which can affect their health and growth.

The number of babies being born addicted is on the increase in recent years. Doctors in Ontario are guessing that the number of babies born addicted have tripled in under a decade. The most typical case is from mothers who are addicted to prescription painkillers like OxyContin, which because of a growing problem has lead the Ontario government to remove OxyConyin and the replacement OxyNeo from the list of funded drugs.