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November 30, 2007
OK: Myth of "Crack Baby" still must be challenged
Effect of drugs challenged
November 15, 2007 By Jeff Raymond
NewsOK.com
Deepening research shows babies who are exposed to cocaine or methamphetamine in the womb fare similarly to other babies as they age.
Moreover, terms such as "crack baby” and "meth baby” are pejorative and not based in scientific research, said scientists, physicians and social workers who spoke at the "Women, Pregnancy and Drug Use: Medical Facts, Practical Responses and the Well-Being of Children and Families” seminar Wednesday afternoon at the Presbyterian Health Foundation Conference Center.
Barry Lester, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics who heads the Brown University Center for Study of Children at Risk, worked to debunk the notion that prenatal exposure to cocaine and meth is extremely damaging to babies.
Two studies Lester has contributed to, including one ongoing in Tulsa, show minor differences between babies born to cocaine- and methamphetamine-using mothers and those born to mothers who don't use the drugs.
Born earlier, lighter
Lester said long-term research showed babies exposed to cocaine and meth in the womb were born slightly earlier and weighed slightly less than babies born to clean mothers.
Drug-exposed babies had slightly higher rates of referrals to special education classes and slightly higher rates of behavioral problems, he said. However, problems seldom were found in more than 5 percent of children studied.
Should a person try to spot drug-exposed babies in a nursery, they wouldn't stand out, he said.
"By and large these are term babies,” he said, meaning the infants were born largely on time at an appropriate weight.
The "crack baby” scare of the 1980s and, more recently, fears of "meth babies” were based on "insufficient and inaccurate information” that caused society to overreact and split families, he said.
In the 1990s, children nationally in foster care reached 500,000, an all-time high that panelists attributed to tough-on-drugs policies.
Speakers said prosecution of pregnant women for drug abuse deterred them from seeking drug treatment and prenatal care, and negatively affected their children.
Dr. Eli Reshef, an obstetrician-gynecologist and assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, compared prosecution of pregnant drug abusers to punishing obese mothers and those who smoke.
"A smoker has more risk of harming the baby than someone who uses meth,” he said.
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmonson, Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma and 10 others sponsored the seminar.
In 2006, 3,000 pregnant women were in need of substance abuse treatment, according to the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.
Fifteen to 20 percent of pregnancies end in loss, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and nearly 1 million U.S. women suffer miscarriages annually.
Posted by lois at November 30, 2007 10:50 AM