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The profile of substance‐using pregnant mothers and their newborns at a regional rural hospital in New South Wales
Author(s) -
Richardson Rebecca,
Bolisetty Srinivas,
Ingall Christopher
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.734
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1479-828X
pISSN - 0004-8666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1479-828x.2001.tb01320.x
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , methadone , heroin , substance abuse , audit , substance misuse , pediatrics , demography , obstetrics , psychiatry , drug , mental health , physics , sociology , optics , management , economics
SUMMARY We conducted an audit study of identified substance‐using mothers and their neonates at Lismore Base Hospital in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales between January 1995 and December 1999. Women using marijuana and/or alcohol only were excluded. The average number of total births during the study period was 1363 per year. Forty‐nine mothers were identified as substance users with an incidence of seven per 1000 total births. Twenty‐three (47%) were methadone users, 14 (29%) methadone and intravenous heroin users, 11 (22%) heroin users, and one (2%) used amphetamines. Twenty‐seven (55%) had irregular antenatal visits. Forty‐one (89%) were hepatitis C positive. Forty‐seven neonates were live‐born and there were two stillbirths. Thirty‐seven (79%) required admission to the special care nursery, 40% of them for withdrawal alone. Twenty‐seven (55%) babies had neonatal withdrawal and 23 (49%) required medication for withdrawal. The incidence of substance abuse among the pregnant women in this region is ten times higher than the previously quoted figures in metropolitan areas of Australia.