Dozens of babies born addicted to drugs

Newborns required emergency treatment at hospitals in the region after drugs including heroin and crack cocaine were detected.

Drugs were found in 30 babies born at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital over the last three years and the 13 in 2018/19 was the highest in at least six years.

There were a further 76 cases at Walsall Manor Hospital between 2013/14 and 2018/19. Another 34 were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome - showing signs of drug addiction - at the Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust.

Mothers who take drugs during pregnancy can pass on the dependence to their unborn child. Babies who show signs of withdrawal then require treatment to wean them off the drugs.

Taking drugs during pregnancy can cause severe problems for babies including poor growth, premature birth, seizures and birth defects.

Heroin can cause significant withdrawal in the baby and symptoms can remain for up to six months.

Heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and methadone were detected in the 13 babies born at New Cross in 2018/19. Heroin was also found in 18 babies born at Shrewsbury and Telford.

Councillor Marcho Longhi, head of public health at Walsall Council, said

He said: "It is distressing to know children are effectively being born with drug additions because of habits of their parents.

"It is awful that a mother would smoke let alone take drugs during pregnancy because the evidence is there that it can cause huge harm to the baby.

"No-one is saying it is easy but children don't ask to have their life choices determined even before they are born."

Natasha Allmark, from the Wolverhampton Liberal Democrats, which released the figures, said: "These figures are shocking in themselves, yet they illustrate a wider problem: There are thousands of children in the UK growing up with parents who have a drug problem."

There were 52 cases at the The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust between 2011/12 and 2016/17.