High Rates Of Opioid-Addicted Babies Born To High-Risk Moms

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A pilot program enacted by the state legislature has found one in five infants born to at-risk mothers at four Indiana hospitals had opiates in their system at birth.

The program began earlier this year and measures the prevalence of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS. NAS refers to a group of problems that occur in infants after they’re exposed to addictive drugs in the womb. In 2014, Indiana passed a law creating both a task force and a pilot program that would study its prevalence in Indiana.