There has been an astounding increase in the use of illegal drugs during pregnancy, therefore increasing the number of babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Just a few short years ago, the babies who suffered through Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome were treated with drug therapy with medications such as Methadone, Morphine, or Clonidine in the neonatal intensive care unit. However, the prevalence of drug use in pregnancy and in turn neonatal abstinence syndrome has caused the newborn nursery to turn into a drug rehabilitation center for these babies. Several issues arise with the obstetrical healthcare team when taking care of these patients, such as a negative personal bias resulting from the negative stigma of drug use especially during …show more content…
Although this seems to contradict itself with nonmaleficence or the idea of not harming the baby, the goal is to not let the baby go through withdrawal in utero, but to manage withdrawal care for the infant after delivery. Once the baby is delivered, the baby is closely monitored for signs and symptoms of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Depending on the substance used, the clinical presentation of signs and symptoms of withdrawal could appear anytime from immediately after birth to up to seven days after delivery (Kremer and Arora, 2015). These babies exhibit a wide array of symptoms such as, but not limited to: foul-smelling diarrhea, a shrieking cry that sounds painful and is near impossible to soothe, abdominal cramping and firm on palpation, sweats similar to that of a middle-aged female going experiencing menopausal symptoms, seizures, and often have an immature sucking reflex which increases the difficulty of soothing and feeding a baby going through Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (Maguire, Webb, Passmore, and Cline,