At least one baby a week born affected by drugs across South Australia

AT least one baby a week is born showing symptoms of drug withdrawal in South Australian hospitals, The Advertiser can reveal.

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AT least one baby a week is born showing symptoms of drug withdrawal in South Australian hospitals, The Advertiser can reveal.

Figures released by the state Health Department show at least 55 reports were made at metropolitan and country hospitals in 2015-16 about babies born showing signs of drug dependence and withdrawal, as a result of their mother taking drugs.

However, the figure could be higher as the department says “additional data may be collected” by the Women’s and Children’s and Lyell McEwin Hospitals and the Flinders Medical Centre.

It has historically been extremely difficult to obtain and publish data showing the extent of this problem.

Experts say babies showing signs of drug dependence or withdrawal would be more irritable, cry more often and have difficulty sleeping or feeding.

Treatment would usually involve giving the infant a small dose of an opioid painkiller or sedative until the symptoms subside, although the long-term effects on children are not well studied.

The Health Department figures show the number of drug-affected babies born in metropolitan and regional SA hospitals has risen from 42 in 2013-14 and 47 in 2014-15.

The total number of reports made last financial year is not yet known, but separate requests to individual hospitals show there were 14 reports made by doctors at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and another 10 at Flinders Medical Centre.

The Lyell McEwin Hospital is yet to respond.

The figures were released following a series of Freedom of Information requests by Liberal child protection spokeswoman Rachel Sanderson over the course of about 12 months.

Ms Sanderson said the findings were “further evidence that the scourge of ice use is growing at an alarming rate and that the Weatherill Government has been totally negligent in tackling it”.

The Child Protection Department has not provided comment on what types of drugs were involved in reported cases or whether children were removed or parents penalised when reports were made.

Department chief executive Cathy Taylor said in cases where her agency was “aware of an impending birth where a baby is at risk of being drug affected” staff developed a plan for “managing the baby and mother post-birth”.

Doctors and other health workers can report suspected cases of drug- or alcohol-affected newborns through the Child Abuse Report Line.

The hotline has come under consistent criticism for long wait times, but Ms Taylor said agreements with major birthing hospitals in SA gave doctors “direct access” so that so reporting concerns about newborns, assessment and “where necessary, removal can occur quickly”.

The State Government has committed $8 million to a taskforce to curb the use of the drug ice and the Child Protection Department can order parents suspected of putting children at risk due to alcohol or drug addiction to undergo testing.

However, it does not reveal how many parents fail to show up for scheduled tests or how many return positive results and for which drugs.

The Nyland Royal Commission into the state’s child protection system identified cases of babies and toddlers being exposed to illicit drugs.

In one case, a two-year-old girl was taken to hospital after ingesting methamphetamine when left unsupervised by her drug-taking father.

The girl had been born with traces of methamphetamine in her body, and there had been six previous child protection notifications related to her parents’ drug abuse and trafficking.

At the time she was admitted to hospital, the toddler’s mother was pregnant again and still using methamphetamines.

Ms Nyland’s report says the departmental response was to put the family on another so-called safety plan “despite the parents taking no responsibility for the situation”.

In another case, staff answering calls to the Child Abuse Report Line had to close the call centre to attend a nearby hospital where they removed a newborn infant from the child’s parents.

Following a recommendation by Ms Nyland, the Government has since lifted a restriction that prevented people from reporting concerns to the CARL hotline about unborn children before 34 weeks into a pregnancy.

Ms Nyland’s review found reports on newborns make up about 1 per cent of the 50,000-odd reports made each year.