Drug Abusing Pregnant Women Research Paper

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Running head: Incarceration for drug abusing pregnant women 1 | Mandatory Drug Treatment and Prosecution for Drug Addicted Pregnant Women | Carla N. Brann | HUS 308 Frank Ellis | University of Maine at Augusta | 3/6/2012 | | Incarceration for drug abusing pregnant women 2 Introduction: With numbers of pregnant women abusing substances on the rise and babies being born with complications due to this problem it raises the question of whether or not the states should take it into their hands and have mandatory drug testing as part of prenatal care. Also intertwined with this would be the placement of a law that requires mandatory treatment and/ or jail sentencing…show more content…
When a baby is born under the influence of a drug after nine months of exposure they go through terrible withdrawals within a few days of being born. Depending on what drug they are addicted to they can experience symptoms for up to months at a time. In most cases these babies will need to be put on medication to go through withdrawal safely. Without these medications to aide with withdrawal symptoms they go through withdrawal such as an adult would. “They scream, twitch and vomit. They have trouble breathing and eating. They rub their noses with their fists so much their skin bleeds.” (Donna Leinwand, Surge in babies addicted to drugs, 2011) Incarceration for drug abusing pregnant women…show more content…
This side debates that there is no need for imprisonment, there just needs to be treatment programs in place that teach moms about the devastating effects of abusing drugs while pregnant and assisting them with getting the proper physicians and medications to come off from drugs. However there is a lot more research done recently on what stage of pregnancy a baby is most at risk and the result is that we just don’t know. There is no set amount and no set time frame that it is okay for a baby to be exposed to drugs or alcohol and still be safe from birth defects. The problem with this still lies in the fact that a large percentage of people that enter drug treatment actually graduate from the program. There is a high drop out rate in treatment centers. So if there is no prosecution in site then still what is there to keep these women in treatment and keep the children safe? There can be threat and follow through with removing custody rights but at that point the damage has been done to the fetus and the state has a new drug addicted baby with birth defects. Incarceration for drug abusing pregnant women 5

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