Baby foot with medication with tubes because being exposed to 

 

prescription drugs

Babies being born exposed to prescription drugs

            The cries of babies are bouncing of the wall at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in the need of prescription drugs. Nearly half of the newborn babies at the hospital NICU are suffering from prescription drugs withdrawal.      

            Knoxville hospital has been dealing with a dramatic increase of newborns with NAS. NAS is a withdrawal process a newborn baby goes through after in utero expose to certain medications. The medication used during pregnancy can pass through the placental to the baby. When the baby is born the baby does not have access to the drugs and likely will go through withdrawal. The worst drug oxycodone is the worst for babies suffering from NAS.

            The babies suffering from withdrawal are easily agitated, cry constantly ,and many cannot be near sound and light. They also may have a high-pitched cry, tightening of the muscles and seizures. Tennessee they have more babies with NAS because they overuse of prescription pain medication.

            In a survey it proves that a third of pregnant woman are addicted to prescription pain meds. The babies with NAS have doubled since 2010.  

            The addiction of these woman have teared up families in Eastern Tennessee.

            Attorney Susan Kovac said “In Knox country we’re drowning , we’ve seen the number of children in foster care increase by almost 50% over the last few years and that’s just the tip of the iceberg because were trying to keep the children out of foster care. We’ve got lots and lots of relatives who are raising drug-exposed infants”.

            “We come and talk to the mom and try to find out what’s the level of her abuse, what’s the level of her addiction, and what can we do to get her clean so she can be in the position to take care of her baby” said attorney Susan Kovac.

            There are two areas were they focus on: environmental and medicinal. Last year the hospital created wing of private rooms that is quitter, darker and easy to control the massive influx of babies suffering from drug withdrawal.

http://www.drugfree.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Baby-foot-hospital-5-1-12-2.jpg(photo)
www.cnn.com (information for my article)

By: Liset Morales
Word Count:358