Women have revealed how they were given painkillers during childbirth and almost had their children taken away from them after positive drug tests.
When Amairani Salinas of Texas was 32 weeks pregnant with her fourth child last year, doctors discovered her baby had no heartbeat.
As doctors prepared her for an emergency C-section, they gave her a benzodiazepine, a sedative that helps patients stay calm.
Mrs. Salinas’ daughter was stillborn. The next day, as she cradled the baby’s body in her arms, a social worker told her that she was being reported to child welfare authorities because a drug test came back positive for benzodiazepines that doctors gave her.
Victoria Villanueva of Indiana had her first child in 2017. Doctors gave the 18-year-old morphine, an opioid, for pain.
Just one day later, a social worker told the new mother that her baby’s stool showed traces of opiates and that she would be reported to social services.
Mrs. Villanueva said, “I didn’t even know how to function.”
These are just two of the women who almost had their children taken away from them as a result of positive drug tests, despite doctors prescribing and choosing the medications.
Women in Texas and Indiana revealed how their newborns were almost taken away from them due to positive drug tests doctors gave them during childbirth (file image)
Susan Horton, pictured above with one of her children, had to fight for two weeks to get her youngest son back after a drug test falsely detected opioids.
TO study 2022 at Massachusetts General Hospital found that more than nine in 10 women who were given fentanyl in their epidural tested positive.
According to the Marshall Projectdetailing the women’s stories, drug tests involving urine samples in plastic cups are also “highly susceptible to false positives, errors and misinterpretations, and many hospitals have not implemented safeguards that protect patients from being reported.” due to defective test results. ‘
While medications such as morphine and fentanyl have caused some of these patients to be flagged as addicted to opioids, even common blood pressure medications administered during C-sections such as Labetalol have caused false positives for methamphetamine because the active ingredients have amphetamine-like structures.
Recent research suggests that incidents like these have been on the rise since Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022.
A study in JAMA PediatricsFor example, it found an 11 percent increase in the number of children entering foster care if the mothers lived in states with abortion restrictions such as Texas and Indiana.
In 2022, according to the latest available federal data, more than 35,000 babies were reported to child welfare services due to substance exposure.
Elizabeth Dominguez (right) was temporarily separated from her newborn son Carter after he ate a poppy seed bagel that caused him to test positive for opioids. She appears in the photo after being reunited with her baby, along with her husband and eldest daughter.
While grieving her dead daughter, Salinas had no idea the hospital had given her a benzodiazepine and denied taking it.
He also tested positive for Delta-9, a type of legal cannabis he had purchased at a supermarket.
The incident forced her into a lengthy investigation, as well as severe depression, while she tried to care for her other children.
She told the Marshall Project: ‘I still have three children alive. They still need to eat. They still need to get up to go to school. They still need their mom.’
It took officials four months to close the case against him, considering it “unfounded.” It would be another year before I read his medical history and found out why he tested positive.
Mrs. Salinas said, “Why do you pay attention to this person who is a good mother, who has done nothing, instead of a child who may really be in danger?”
Mrs. Villanueva, who was newly married and working on her GED, told a nurse that although she briefly experimented with marijuana and acid when she was 15, she had not used any drugs since.
He received a drug test when he was first admitted to the hospital, which came back negative for illicit substances. A nurse gave her morphine once contractions began.
But according to Ms. Villanueva’s medical records, the hospital informed the Indiana Department of Children’s Services about her “history of drug use.” Doctors also sent her newborn daughter’s stool for testing without her knowledge, and traces of morphine were found.
Although her records explicitly indicate that the drugs were administered during childbirth, Mrs. Villanueva still had to present more evidence and allow inspections of her home.
She told the Marshall Project that it took investigators several weeks to close the case.
She said: ‘I couldn’t even properly enjoy the birth of my son. Until after the fact, when they were no longer there.
In unreal but equally horrifying cases, some women have also reported having their children taken away from them simply after eating certain foods.
Mrs Horton said: ‘I felt very emotional and I was alone. I just gave birth the day before, I’m not sleeping and I felt really attacked.
In 2019, Elizabeth Dominguez, 29, was forcibly separated from her newborn son after a urine test came back positive for opioids.
It turned out that the poppy seed muffin she had eaten hours before going into labor had caused traces of opiates to appear in her urine. Drug tests on the baby, Carter, came back negative.
Because poppy seeds come from the opium plant, they can be contaminated with opiates.
Dominguez told the local news station. WKBW: “I felt like a terrible mother leaving him,” she said. “I just want everyone to know that this could happen.”
“It’s such a terrible thing and I don’t want it to happen to anyone.”
And in 2022, Susan Horton of California ate a poppy seed salad prepared at Costco the day before giving birth to her daughter.
Just one day after giving birth to the newborn, doctors told her she couldn’t take him home because opioids were found in the mother of five’s urine.
It took her two weeks to regain custody of her daughter, Hallie, which included appearing in juvenile court and having her home inspected.
she said Reveal News: ‘I felt very emotional and I was alone. I just gave birth the day before, I’m not sleeping and I felt really attacked.
“They had singular proof that he had taken something and it was wrong.”