The number of babies born suffering from withdrawal symptoms due
to their mothers’ use of prescription painkillers during
pregnancy more than tripled between 2000 and 2009, according to
a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association. The authors estimate that one infant is born every
hour in the U.S. with symptoms of opioid withdrawal, accounting
for some 13,500 babies each year. Over the same time period, the
number of women using opioid pain relievers like Oxycontin
during pregnancy nearly quintupled and related health-care costs
— particularly the care of drug-exposed infants in neonatal
intensive wards — rose to $720 million annually, from $190
million. “This serves as a reminder that this is really a public
health emergency,” lead author Dr. Stephen Patrick of the
University of Michigan told JAMA Report. However, the study did
not determine what proportion of these opioid-exposed children
were born to mothers who were taking painkillers as prescribed
by their doctors for chronic