Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the growing number of infants born to mothers using drugs, focusing on the: (1) extent of the problem; (2) health effects and medical costs; (3) impact of the problem on health and welfare systems; and (4) availability of drug treatment and prenatal care to drug-addicted pregnant women.
GAO found that: (1) estimates of the number of infants exposed to cocaine annually ranged from 100,000 to 375,000; (2) differences in hospitals' efforts to identify drug-exposed infants resulted in a wide range of estimates; (3) drug-exposed infants were more likely than non-exposed infants to suffer from medical problems and, in some cases, required costly medical care; (4) because of the uncertainty surrounding the long-term consequences of prenatal drug exposure, it could not identify future costs of care for such children; (5) 1,200 of the 4,000 drug-exposed infants at 10 hospitals were placed in foster care, and the cost of 1 year of foster care for those infants was about $7.2 million; (6) from 1986 to 1989, estimated nationwide foster care demand increased 29 percent, raising concerns about whether the system could adequately respond by supplying foster parents, providing quality foster homes, and ensuring supportive health and social services; (7) drug treatment services for drug-addicted pregnant women were insufficient or inadequate to meet demand; (8) many barriers for treatment existed for pregnant mothers, including the lack of child care services and the fear of criminal prosecution; and (9) prenatal care could help prevent or at least ameliorate many of the problems and costs associated with the births of drug-exposed infants.
