Mother giving birth to a drug addict baby: I reduced the dose but could not take it

“When I found out about the pregnancy, I tried to reduce the doses just because it wouldn’t harm the baby, but I couldn’t take it at all,” the young Trakai-resident mother justified today.

The woman was prosecuted for negligently altering her baby’s health due to negligence: Monika Ambrasaitė-Valentinavičienė, judge of the Vilnius Regional District Court, announced that she would be detained for 40 days, but suspended for 9 months. During this period, the woman will be required from 10 to 6 pm Do not leave the house or use psychoactive substances.

“When imposing a sentence, the court takes into account the nature and danger of the crime committed, the form and type of guilt of the offender: a negligent crime was committed, the act was terminated,” said the judge. – The court also takes into account the file data describing the defendants: young, unemployed, as of 2021. registered with the Employment Service in May, illegal, repeatedly administratively punished, does not pay fines, is registered with the Center Vilnius Branch Addiction Disease Republican, Diagnosis – Mental and Behavioral Disorders, Alcohol Use, Addiction Syndrome “.

A pretrial investigation into the mild health disorder of the newborn was launched when doctors approached officers.

They claimed that a newborn had been taken from the Vilnius maternity ward to the infant neonatology ward at the Santara clinics.

“The patient was diagnosed with neonatal withdrawal syndrome due to the mother’s drug addiction (heroin use),” the doctors said, and the child’s mother could not be contacted, and the brother of a newborn was hospitalized in the neonatal ward a year ago.

“It is known from medical records that since 2019, two children grew up with their mother, the mother of the third child smoked, used drugs during pregnancy and attended women’s consultations once,” said the doctors from the Santara clinics.

According to them, the baby’s health was affected for more than 10 days due to neonatal drug withdrawal syndrome.

According to the prosecutors who conducted the investigation, the mother neglected the newborn because “knowing she was pregnant, neglected, completely indifferent to the baby’s development process, not interested in fetal development and possible risk factors,” she used drugs other than heroin. toxic during pregnancy, causing your body to get used to this substance.

A family doctor interviewed by officials said that the young mother had drug addiction problems, but did not know if they were users and a third pregnancy.

“I remember that a drug doctor had referred me to her for drug addiction, but she did not go to the treatment center,” she said, not including her care as an internal medicine doctor because she was supervised by gynecologists. .

“Before the survey, I was interested in the visits of the patient to the doctors and I saw that she visited the obstetrician-gynecologists in the polyclinic several times during her pregnancy,” said the doctor.

At the time, a Trakai resident, who had a third child, told authorities during a survey that he had been using drugs (heroin) while expecting a newborn.

“I have been addicted to drugs for about 4 years,” she said. “When I found out I was expecting a baby, I was three months pregnant.”

She did not hide the fact that she was intoxicated both before she found out about the pregnancy and later, although she allegedly tried to reduce the dose for fear of harming the baby, but failed to completely rid herself of the addiction.

The woman also assured that she would like to be treated for the addiction, but that only a doctor can help her, but she cannot get there because of the long lines: because of drug addiction ”.

The mother, who was convicted of child health disorders, also noted that she regretted this irresponsible behavior and was keen to recover as soon as possible and return the children currently in her care to her family.