Baby addicted to alcohol or drugs born every 10 days

A baby is born addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine every 10 days here.

The situation, which causes serious health problems and some infant deaths, is revealed just days after claims our drugs crisis is spiralling out of control.

HSE figures provided under the Freedom of Information Act show that, between 2011 and 2013, a total of 92 babies were born addicted to drugs or alcohol in the country’s maternity units.

The HSE did not provide a breakdown of the drugs as the records are not held in this way, other than to say they include alcohol, illegal drugs and over-the-counter medications.

However, it is widely accepted within the maternity sector that the illegal drugs include heroin, cocaine and other opiates which pose serious, life-threatening complications for newborns.

According to the records, which were only partially released and did not break the figures down by hospital or region in order to protect the families’ identities:

Between 2011 and 2013, the latest annual figures available, 92 babies were born addicted because their mother continued to misuse during pregnancy

This includes 33 in 2011, 34 in 2012 and 25 in 2013

In nine out of every 10 cases illegal drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, and legal over-the-counter medications were the source of the addiction. In the remaining cases the baby was born addicted to alcohol.

While the HSE said “other factors” may exist, it said five of the babies were born prematurely in 2011; 13 in 2012; and eight in 2013

Over the three-year period, more than a dozen were not discharged home, meaning they either died or were taken into care.

The situation emerged just days after Dublin Lord Mayor Christy Burke, who was involved in the controversial Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement three decades ago, said Ireland’s addiction problem is “worse now than the heroin epidemic of the 1980s”.

“It was heroin in my day; today it’s prescribed pills, cocaine, benzos, hash, dalmane, librium, valium: it’s a whole cocktail. It’s very hard to say ‘no’ when you’re vulnerable to addiction,” he said on Wednesday.

Master of the Rotunda, Dr Sam Coulter Smith, said his hospital “would have one or two” of these cases at any time, and that while it was a “city centre issue in the past now it is country wide”.

While the medic noted the rate needs to be seen in the context of 70,000-plus births a year, he said babies born addicted need “very labour intensive, special care”.

“Ones born closer to [full] term may not have any long-term issues, but it is about the condition they are born in, their prematurity and different backgrounds. It’s the whole set,” he said.

Last summer, a small number of US states made illegal drug taking during pregnancy an offence under the law, resulting in potential jail for women involved.

The areas included Tennessee, with its judiciary claiming the new system is helping to reduce the issue.

However, Ana Liffey drugs project director Tony Duffin, said making it illegal would fail to assist the mothers and children at the centre of the problem.

He said while pregnant drug users need “intensive medical and social supports”, since the recession began “addiction services have experienced significant cuts and this has undoubtedly impacted on services”.

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