Care order mum ‘wants to get away from drugs’

The mother of a baby born 10 weeks prematurely, who the new Child and Family Agency wants to place in foster care, has claimed she reversed her decision to have the child in Dublin after witnessing an expectant mother and her partner inject heroin in a hospital.

The boy, born on Oct 3 last weighing just 2lb, is being cared for in the hospital where he was born, outside of Dublin. He is the subject of an interim care order which runs out tomorrow and the CFA wishes to secure a six-month care order with limited parental access to the child.

In contrast, the parents have offered to work under a supervision order, which would mean their care of the child would be regularly monitored.

The case, before Judge Tim Lucey in Cork District Court, has heard that the couple wished to stay at the father’s parents’ house once their son is well enough to be discharged from hospital.

Yesterday both parents gave evidence and the mother claimed the reason she told social work and hospital staff in early September that she wanted to move to Dublin to have the baby was so they could have the support of the father’s parents and so he could get a job. But she said yesterday that she had changed her mind and moved back to the area in which the child was born because “things were happening” in the Dublin hospital that she did not like.

Under cross examination by solicitor for the CFA, Katharine Kelleher, the mother said: “An expectant mother and her partner were jacking up inside in the wards.” She added: “They were taking heroin.”

The court had earlier heard that the mother had grown up in care, had at one time had a drug problem and also had a history of premature births.

She also has an older child who has been in care for a number of years. She said she “loved him to bits” and not a day went by when she did not think of him. She said both she and her partner were capable of looking after the baby.

Earlier, a social worker in the hospital where the baby was born said it had been a “stressful” pregnancy and there had been times in which the mother did not engage with professionals.

The principal social worker told the court that she had fears that the mother was “volatile” and could potentially cause physical harm to the child.

The hearing could conclude today.