S.T.
11/2/2001
Addicted:
Born a slave
To heroin
Dozens of babies are born to addicted mums
in Singapore each year; they face a tough life
with a high risk of blindness, retardation and
death
By MANASI RAJAGOPALAN
BARELY hours old, they cry
endlessly and clench their tiny fists,
as waves of wracking pain and
nausea hit them.
Fits of diarrhoea and
vomiting leave them weak and
unable to digest breast milk. Acute
nervous tension stiffens their
newborn bodies. Sleep rarely comes
easily, and violent seizures are
common.
As their craving gets more
intense, so does their high-pitched
wailing.
For these newborns, their
only relief is heroin.
Every year in Singapore,
about 40 babies come into the world
with these excruciating symptoms of
drug addiction.
Born to drug-dependent
mothers, they suffer from the effects
of drug withdrawal for weeks –
sometimes up to three months –
before they recover.
And there are those who
never recover completely and are
left with permanent neurological or
physical damage, said Dr
P.Agarwal, a consultant with the
Department of the KK Women’s
and Children’s Hospital.
A 1999 study by Dr Agarwal and
three of her colleagues revealed that
of the 14,690 births from January
1994 to December 1996, 38 had
evidence that their mothers had used
narcotics.
Doctors at KK hospital are
alert to contain high risk of four
drank alcohol regularly. Only 37 per
cent bothered to go for regular
medical check-ups.
When these young mothers
do show up at the hospital, they are
almost ready to give birth and it is
too late to help them or their babies
– the drugs have already been
absorbed into the baby’s blood
through the placenta.
Once their blood and urine
test positive for drugs, the women
and their children are handed over to
the Ministry of Community
Development And Sports and the
police.
This abrupt end to their
drug habit causes varying degrees of
withdrawal symptoms in the babies,
similar to those for adults, and some
are given medication to calm them
down.
At times the drugs use
results in permanent defects such as
blindness, lower birth wrights and
retarded mental growth. In extreme
Chapter 3
cases, the babies die.
One in every four of these
drug babies are put up for adoption.
The rest are monitored in the
hospital until their mothers are
released.
In the study of those who
were taken back by their mothers,
fewer than half showed symptoms of
drug-related damage.
Lower-income
backgrounds, lack of education and
fear of being caught by the
authorities are some reasons for lack
of antenatal care, said a spokesman
for the Singapore Anti-Narcotics
Association.
The organization runs a
comprehensive after-care
programme with about 40 girls
under supervisory care. About half
of them are young mothers.
The chances of these
women reverting to drugs, “very
much depends on the environment
they live in”, said Dr Agarwal.
Although there are no
figures available, the situation is
only getting worse, she added, with
drugs such as Ecstasy and Speed
gaining popularity among pregnant
women.