ALARM SOUNDED OVER ADDICT BABIES

Grave concern was voiced yesterday over the sharp increase in the number of
drug-addicted babies born on the Island during the first three months of
this year.

Carolyn Webbe, coordinator of foster care for the Department of Family and
Child Services, said already this year eight babies had been born with
cocaine addictions to drug-abusing mothers.

She said it was a steep increase on last year and led to fears that more
young women were out there alone, hooked on drugs and expecting children.

Mrs. Webbe said one addicted woman in Bermuda had had four babies taken
from her and put into care during recent years.

Another mother, she said, had had two babies which had both died soon after
birth, due to premature births brought on by the addictions.

"There appears to have been an increase this year and we don't know why",
said Mrs. Webbe.

"There has been about eight this year, and most of the mothers have had
children before that have been taken into care.

"The majority of them take cocaine - it's a serious addiction. We see a
number of them come into hospital, about to go into labour, and they are
high. They take drugs literally right up to the point of the birth.

"We have had new born babies test positive for drugs before, and many times
babies are born with withdrawal.

"Most of the babies are premature and so have a very low birth weight, so
they need a lot of special care and attention."

Mrs. Webbe said as soon as the babies were born, the department took them
from their mothers. Once they were well enough to leave the special care
baby unit, they were placed in foster care.

The mothers are given three to six months to clean themselves up before
they can apply to have their babies back.

If they fail, they face the possibility of losing their children forever.

However, the problem of drug addiction in babies does not stop there. It
can take weeks and months to get a baby through drug withdrawal, as well as
the complications brought on by its low birth weight. And the problems can
last a lifetime.

Supervisor of the department, Glenda Edwards, said drug addiction in
pregnant mothers often led to traumatised, sickly and crying babies, as
well as learning difficulties and behaviour problems in later years;
although, that was not true in every case.

She said it made finding suitable foster parents difficult, as the babies
needed round the clock attention and constant stroking and nurturing, and
had to be placed immediately with stable family homes.

Mrs. Edwards said the babies were not the only cause for concern. She said
when many of the addicted women arrived in the labour ward, they were
undernourished, in bad health and had received no prenatal care in the
months prior.

She said: "There is only so much we can do because we can't make people
come to see us beforehand, and we can't make anyone go on a treatment
programme. It would be so much better if we could get them on treatment
programmes before the birth.

"But the clinic has literally gone out and brought women in when we have
received reports about women we have been involved with previously.

"I think we really need the community's help. It would help if people
called us and made us aware if they saw a pregnant women out there using
drugs. We need the family's help too."

Mrs. Webbe added: "In the mid-90s the problem of babies being born to
addicts was high, but it received a lot of publicity and the problem
subsided for a while.

"However, in the last three months, we have had enough incidents to cause
concern again. We are back where we were."

Yesterday, at the Alternatives To Incarceration (ATI) training conference
at the Southampton Princess Hotel, Mrs. Webbe asked speaker Melody Heaps,
the president of a major drug rehabilitation centre in the US, how long
drug addicted mothers should be given before they lose their children
altogether.

Ms Heaps said women were the hardest client when it came to drug addiction
and said Bermuda should expect difficulties when trying to deal with them.

And she said in the US, women were given opportunities to get clean while
still having their children.

She said: "Women, as we have discovered, are very very difficult to treat.
They regularly have been abused, if not sexually abused, and have no skills.

"Having children creates some sense of a relationship (for them). We have
had the explosion of the addicted baby."

She said in the US, some drug treatment programmes allow babies, and other
systems enable mothers to live at home with their babies, but case
managers, or coaches, visit them every day.

And she said sometimes centres can be convinced to allow infants in as well.

She added: "It's really critical that you create systems that allow for
that. It's one of the most difficult things you will deal with."

Mrs. Webbe said she hoped Bermuda could develop similar programmes where
children were included, and said the department was currently looking at a
home-based programme, where mothers could return home with their babies.

She said Fair Havens, which offers a programme for addicted women and
pregnant women, was also looking to expand to include babies. Last night,
Health Minister Nelson Bascome said he had no idea why Bermuda had seen an
increase in the number of drug babies this year, but he urged sexually
active women on drugs to visit the clinic in Victoria Street for advice and
free contraception.

He said: "The first concern is that the habits of an addict are very
volatile because they are exposing themselves to a number of diseases -
diseases that could be life-threatening, especially, HIV and Aids.

"If someone addicted to drugs is having sex, they should go to the clinic
and have the proper contraception given to them. There are many methods
they can use. There are people they can talk to to protect themselves and
so they don't have the responsibility of being impregnated and having a
child to care for.

"I would ask family members to assist, as well. If drug addicts do become
pregnant I urge them, or their friends and family, to make sure they seek
help from the clinic. They do not have to go without help.

"This has to become a community issue. We would ask that people seek help
for them."