A sharp rise in heroin addiction, coupled with the risks of newborns developing withdrawal symptoms after they are sent home, has led a group of Cincinnati hospitals to try what they say is the first program of its kind in the United States: testing all mothers, or their infants, for opiates regardless of background, not just those who seem high-risk.
The aim, they say, is to catch as early as possible any infants at risk of suffering from withdrawal because of their mothers' drug abuse. Known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, infants can experience extreme irritability, poor feeding and diarrhea, all of which can show 48 to 96 hours after birth.