Crack Addiction—The Plight of the Unborn
WHEN crack cocaine made its debut on the world scene in the early 1980’s, few users dared to believe the devastating effects it would have. After all, was it not smoked in cute little glass pipes or mixed with the tobacco in cigarettes or marijuana? Word on the street had it that crack was a safe drug. Certainly it was much cheaper than heroin or another form of cocaine. People in the lower income bracket could afford it. The euphoria crack brought on seemed to be worth it, no matter what the cost.
Dramatic evidence of the dangers of crack, however, leapt onto the pages of medical journals when pregnant users began giving birth to drug-affected infants. Doctors began to warn of the horrendous effects crack cocaine can have on the unborn. The number of damaged infants, some permanently so, began escalating with each passing year. “When crack cocaine hit,” said one doctor, “the number of small, sick babies just went through the roof.”
Where there is widespread use of crack, statistics bear him out. According to a 36-hospital survey in the United States in 1988 by the National Association for Perinatal Addiction Research and Education, 11 percent of U.S. newborn babies, or about 375,000 babies a year, are now exposed to drugs during pregnancy. The New York Times reports that between 1986 and 1988, “the number of newborn children in New York City testing positive for drugs—mostly cocaine—almost quadrupled, going from 1,325 to 5,088.”
The Horrid Effects
“The crack cocaine mothers are the sickest you’re going to see,” said Dr. Richard Fulroth, a Stanford University specialist. “They come in right when they’re ready to deliver, and you just hold your breath waiting to see what you’re gonna get.” All too often what has been developing in the womb of the crack user is not pretty. Crack can cause spasms in the baby’s blood vessels, restricting the vital flow of oxygen and nutrients for long periods. Fetal growth, including head and brain size, may be impaired. Strokes and seizures often occur, and malformations of the kidneys, genitals, intestines, and spinal cord may develop. There is also the danger of the placenta’s tearing loose from the uterus, which kills the fetus and may prove fatal to the mother.
When a crack baby is born, doctors and nurses can see visible evidence of the devastation brought on by the drug. One report described such a child as “a mere patch of flesh with a tangerine-sized head and limbs like splinters.” In several instances, reported Discover magazine, cocaine babies have been born without the two middle fingers of a hand.
Dr. Dan R. Griffith, developmental psychologist at Northwestern University, said that cocaine-exposed babies are often born with “a very fragile, easily overloaded nervous system.” They tend to be hypersensitive and irritable, screaming inconsolably at the slightest provocation. ‘A sudden noise or change in position, even talking to and looking at the baby, can trigger prolonged crying,’ the doctor said. ‘Other obvious effects of drug damage to the newborn child,’ Dr. Griffith describes, ‘can be that the babies escape into a deep sleep for 90 percent of the time to shut themselves off from outside stimulation. They will not wake up even if undressed, talked to, rocked, or physically manipulated.’
These neurological problems can continue for months, the doctor said, thus causing both mental and physical frustration to the mother at a time when a bond of love and attachment needs to be formed. “The baby tends to shut the mother out and become very irritable when she tries to attend to his needs. The mother becomes withdrawn from the infant and resents him for not returning her attentions,” the doctor added. This behavior on the part of the infant and the resentment of the mother often leads to child abuse.
Abandoned Newborns
Because the condition of such newborn infants is so precarious, their stay in the hospital can run into weeks and sometimes months. Very often, however, a lengthy stay is not due so much to the child’s condition as it is to the mother’s attitude toward her baby. Many times the mother simply abandons the infant in the hospital, making him a ward of the city. “I cannot understand the mother not asking any questions about the baby, never coming again,” complained one concerned doctor. Some never even stay long enough to name the baby. Nurses must do that for them. “The most remarkable and hideous aspect of crack cocaine use,” said a hospital-staff nurse, “seems to be the undermining of the maternal instinct.” One hospital has even had to send telegrams to uninterested parents to get them to sign for the postmortems when the babies die. Do you find this shocking?
Because of the work load of hospital nurses, these babies cannot be given the love and attention they so vitally need. In some cases when foster homes cannot readily be found, caring people with a love for children have volunteered their time, a few hours each week, to baby-sit these abandoned infants. “They feed, sing, play, rock and change them,” said one worker. “They treat them as they would their own baby. It is so good for the children. Some of them are here a long time.”
What does the future hold for these cocaine-damaged infants? Their lower than normal IQ levels will present a future problem for teachers to cope with. “Because of physical and developmental impairments,” said one child expert, “these kids are going to be a problem for themselves and society for 40 or 50 years.” Indeed, crack has made an indelible mark on society.