Maryland Has 5th Highest Rate Of New Moms Addicted To Opioids

MARYLAND — The number of pregnant women using opioids such as heroin and fentanyl has skyrocketed nationwide. Federal health officials say it now poses a “significant public health concern.”

Between 1999 and 2014, the national prevalence of opioid use disorder more than quadrupled from 1.5 cases per 1,000 deliveries to 6.5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported this month.

In Maryland, the rate was 11.7 cases per 1,000 deliveries in 2014, the most recent year for which data was available. That’s up from what it was in 1999, when the rate was 8.2 cases per 1,000 deliveries.

“We are seeing episodes of babies testing positive for opioids much more frequently than several years ago,” Jeanne Hill, director of MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital’s Women’s Health & Family Birthing Center, said in a recent statement. "They have a high-pitched cry, they can’t calm themselves down, they have tremors, they often have diarrhea and tensed muscles. It is just heartbreaking."

Pregnant women abusing opioids can lead to preterm labor, stillbirth, neonatal abstinence syndrome — referring to when newborns are withdrawing from drugs — and maternal death, according to the CDC.

Vermont had the highest rate of opioid-dependent mothers in the country, with 48.6 cases per 1,000 deliveries in 2014, the CDC reported. That number is actually down from 2013, when the rate peaked at more than 51 cases per 1,000 deliveries.

Washington, D.C., and Nebraska saw the lowest rates in the country at .7 and 1.2, respectively.

Unfortunately, the CDC report does not tell the whole story. Just 30 states and the District of Columbia had sufficient publicly available data to be included in the report, and out of those, only 25 states and the District of Columbia had such data for 2014.

In all states with available data, the trend was an increase in babies born to opioid-dependent mothers, the report showed.

"These findings illustrate the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic on families across the U.S., including on the very youngest," CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said in a release.

Here are the 10 states with the highest rates of opioid use by pregnant women in 2014, according to the CDC:

1. Vermont (48.6)
2. West Virginia (32.1)
3. Kentucky (19.3)
4. New Mexico (14.8)
5. Maryland (11.7)
6. Washington (10.8)
7. Rhode Island (10.2)
8. Oregon (8.4)
9. North Carolina (7.8)
10. Michigan (7.7)

The average annual rate increase was lowest in California, while the highest increases were seen in Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia, ranging from 2.5 to 5.4 opioid use disorder diagnoses per 1,000 delivery hospitalizations per year.

"Untreated opioid use disorder during pregnancy can lead to heartbreaking results," Redfield said. "Each case represents a mother, a child, and a family in need of continued treatment and support."

Nearly 100 babies are born into drug addiction each year in Harford County, where health care and addiction treatment providers have partnered to offer a program called Project Healthy Delivery that provides wrap-around services for prenatal care.

And across the state, the Maryland Patient Safety Center has been working to standardize care for newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome since 2016.

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The CDC said state action is “critical” to curbing the opioid epidemic, and recommended states focus on programs and policies to reduce illegal — and prescription — opioid use.

“Continued national, state, and provider efforts to prevent, monitor, and treat opioid use disorder among reproductive-aged and pregnant women are needed,” the authors wrote. “Efforts might include improved access to data in Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, increased substance abuse screening, use of medication-assisted therapy, and substance abuse treatment referrals.”

Patch national reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this article.

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