Some 76 babies impacted by mothers taking drugs during pregnancy
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Hospital records show 76 babies born in Ireland last year were impacted by their mothers taking drugs during pregnancy.
The figures, received under the Freedom of Information Act, also show there were no recorded cases of HIV and foetal alcohol syndrome in babies from birth to three weeks being discharged from hospitals in 2022.
The figures also reveal that more than a thousand babies have been affected by illegal and legal drugs in the past ten years. The effects of drugs on a baby vary depending on the type of substance being used.
According to Drugs.ie, cannabis can increase stress in newborns and make children more impulsive, meaning some effects may go undetected until later in life.
Cocaine has been linked with heart defects in a baby as well as learning difficulties in older years.
Opiates such as heroin, methadone, and morphine can cause the baby to become addicted in the womb resulting in withdrawal symptoms at birth.
Injection of opiates into the system while pregnant also increases the risk of HIV on a child, because of the sharing of needles.
Mothers taking prescription medicine are advised to seek medical advice before use.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the HSE told the it is important for mothers who are taking drugs to tackle this issue.
“Your midwife and doctor are used to looking after babies with drug withdrawal symptoms. They can offer support and advice."
The data does not include “any public activity performed in private hospitals under the 2020 - 2022 private hospital agreements”.
The spokesperson continued: “Each Hospital In-Patient Enquire (HIPE) discharge record represents one episode of care. Patients may be admitted to hospital more than once in any given time period with the same or different diagnoses. In the absence of a unique health identifier, therefore, the data reported to HIPE facilitate analysis of hospital discharge activity, but do not permit analysis of discharges at individual patient level.
“Consequently, it is not possible to use HIPE data to examine certain parameters such as the number of hospital encounters per patient, or to estimate proxies for incidence or prevalence of disease."
In a statement, Tusla said social work staff work “very closely with maternity hospitals, and other key partners, to keep children as safe as possible”.