Doctors prescribed these women drugs… and then took away their babies and called them addicts

Women have revealed how they were given painkillers during labor and had their children almost taken away 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. As she cradled the child’s body in her arms the next day, a social worker told her she was being reported to child protection authorities because a drug test came back positive for benzodiazepines, which the drug doctors had given her.

Victoria Villanueva of Indiana was induced with her first child in 2017. Doctors gave the then 18-year-old morphine, an opiate, for the pain.

Just a 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.

Ms. Villanueva said, “I didn’t even know how to function.”

These are just two of the women who almost had their children taken away as a result of positive drug tests, despite doctors prescribing and choosing the drugs for them.

A 2022 study from Massachusetts General Hospital found that more than nine in 10 women who received fentanyl in their epidurals tested positive for it.

According to the Marshall Projectwhich detailed the women’s stories, drug tests using urine samples in plastic cups are also “highly susceptible to false positives, errors and misinterpretations – and many hospitals have failed to implement safeguards that would protect patients from being reported due to erroneous test results . ‘

Although drugs like morphine and fentanyl have caused some of these patients to be classified as opioid abusers, even common blood pressure medications given during cesarean sections, such as Labetalol, have caused false positives for meth because the active ingredients have similar structures to amphetamines.

Recent research suggests that these types of incidents have increased since Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022.

One study in JAMA PediatricsFor example, an 11 percent increase in the number of children entering foster care was found when mothers lived in states with abortion restrictions, such as Texas and Indiana.

More than 35,000 babies were reported to child welfare services for substance exposure in 2022, according to the latest available federal data.

As she grieved her stillborn daughter, Mrs. Salinas had no idea the hospital had given her a benzodiazepine and denied taking it.

She also tested positive for Delta-9, a type of legal cannabis she bought in a supermarket.

The incident forced her into a lengthy investigation and into severe depression as she tried to care for her other children.

She told the Marshall Project, “I have three living children. They still have to eat. They still have to get up to go to school. They still need their mother.”

It took four months for officials to close the case against her as “unsubstantiated.” It would be another year before she would read her medical records and discover why she tested positive.

Ms. Salinas said, “Why are you giving your attention to this person who is a good mother, who has done nothing, instead of a child who may be in danger?”

Ms. Villanueva, who was newly married and working on her GED, told a nurse that although she briefly experimented with marijuana and acid at age 15, she had not used drugs since.

When she was first admitted to the hospital, she underwent a drug test, which came back negative for any illegal substances. A nurse gave her morphine when the contractions started.

But according to Ms. Villanueva’s medical records, the hospital told the Indiana Department of Child Services about her “history of drug use.” Doctors also sent her newborn daughter’s feces for examination without her knowledge, where traces of morphine were found.

Although her file explicitly states that the drugs were administered during labor, Ms. Villanueva was still required to submit more tests and allow inspections of her home.

She told the Marshall Project that it took several weeks for investigators to complete the case.

She said: ‘I couldn’t even really enjoy the birth of my child. Until afterwards, when they were gone.’

In unrealized but equally horrific cases, some women have also reported having their children taken away simply after eating certain foods.

In 2019, 29-year-old Elizabeth Dominguez was forcibly separated from her newborn son after a urine test came back positive for opiates.

It turned out that the poppy seed bagel she had eaten hours before giving birth had caused traces of opiates to appear in her urine. Drug tests for the child, Carter, came back negative.

Because poppy seeds come from the opium plant, they can become contaminated with opiates.

Ms. Dominguez told the local news station WKBW: “I felt like a horrible mother leaving him,” she said. “I just want everyone to know this can happen.”

‘It’s so terrible and I don’t want it to happen to anyone.’

And in 2022, Susan Horton of California ate a pre-made poppy seed salad from Costco the day before she gave birth to her daughter.

Just a day after giving birth, doctors told her she couldn’t take the baby home because opiates had been found in the mother of five’s urine.

It took two weeks to regain custody of her daughter, Hallie, including an appearance in juvenile court and an inspection of her home.

She told me 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 confused.

“They had a unique piece of evidence that I had taken something and it was wrong.”