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I visit my sister at work sometimes, a nurse who looks after drug addled premature babies at a big hospital... it is heart wrenching to see those little people
by steve19 10y ago
I visit my sister at work sometimes, a nurse who looks after drug addled premature babies at a big hospital... it is heart wrenching to see those little people hooked up to morphine lines because they were born addicts to useless parents.
I am sorry she went through that, it is very unfortunate that statistically some tests will come back with false positives. Arguing that they should have treated her different is much like arguing babies should not to be vaccinated because there is a very slight statistical chance they might have a bad reaction.
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI downvoted you because not everyone who is an addict is useless, no more than someone who is going through any other mental illness is useless.
- Chris2048 10y agoOP says "useless parents".
- toomuchtodo 10y agoRight. No more useless than workaholic, absentee parents, or parents with depression. There are no useless parents, only parents who need help.
- jamespo 10y agoThey're useless if they refuse help
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI don't disagree. Would you tell a disabled parent they're useless? One with MS? Or one with cystic fibrosis? Probably not. Mental illness is no different. Whether you want to parent, and how much you're able to parent, are completely different states.
- Chris2048 10y agoI don't care if you want to parent or not. If your baby tests positive for meth you're a risk.
- steve19 10y ago> There are no useless parents, only parents who need help. You honestly belive all parents, even child abusing parents are just good parents that need a little help?
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI believe that "truly useless" parents are a minority compared to the cohort of parents who have mental illness issues in general. My mother was an abusive alcoholic who abandoned our family because she couldn't get the help she needed. She wasn't a bad person, just someone who couldn't get the medical and counseling services needed to cope with previous life experiences that enabled her addiction.
- steve19 10y agoSorry to hear about your mother. Do you have a relationship with her now?
- toomuchtodo 10y agoNo need to be sorry! My issue with the US medical/insurance complex. I do; she's disabled and I support her in her old age. While it doesn't change the past, she's apologized for not being able to get the help she needed and for how she behaved. Have to give people the benefit of the doubt. To hold onto the coal of anger only burns yourself.
- steve19 10y agoThat's good to hear! You have a good attitude.
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI appreciate the kind words. I'd like to think life is the rock tumbler that polishes us into precious stone.
- curiousgal 10y agoToo bad I can't downvote you because downvoting isn't about a comment disagreeing with your opinion, it's about a comment not adding anything to the discussion.
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI didn't downvote parent because I disagreed with them. I downvoted because I believe their statement is factually incorrect.
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoIf a test has a non trivial false positive rate, then a positive must not be treated as a true one without further analysis. Innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.
- sickbeard 10y agoIt's not about innocent or guilt. CPS wasn't called. If a test is positive then they take certain precautions. The baby tested negative but she was treated like positive.
- btown 10y agoYet arrests can be made, and bail denied, before a trial if there is reasonable suspicion that the defendant is a danger to other human beings. And in this case, the positive test result was certainly enough for reasonable suspicion. Everyone acted professionally, the baby was not taken away, the freedom to breastfeed was not taken away. Even if the (statistical) test should have taken whether a person is known to use an asthma inhaler into (greater?) account in its prior distribution, that doesn't change the procedure here, just the number of people it might apply to.
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoAsthma inhalers, poppy seed muffins, whatever. If the false positive rate is even just 1% or .1%, then the results must automatically be treated with suspicion and the dignity of the accused shouldn't be infringed on (e.g. You tested positive, it could be false, we'll need to run some more tests).
- powercf 10y agoFrom the article: > All three days, the nurses are reluctant to hand over the baby, saying my actions are irresponsible. > Every shift change, two nurses stand by my bed and inform another two nurses of my status as a combative patient. “This woman tested positive for methamphetamine,” This does not strike me as very professional. The medical staff should have considered the possibility of a false positive, and given the mother the benefit of the doubt when she said she wasn't taking methamphetamine. Telling the mother that she shouldn't breastfeed and that CPS have been called, while not stopping her from breastfeeding (presumably they have no legal power) is the worst of both worlds: increase stress/worry (which is something the child would pick up on), draw everyone's focus away from the actual birth and the child, while simultaneously allowing her to potentially pass this, presumably harmful, drug to the child. Madness.
- DanBC 10y agoThe child has a human right to a family life with its parent. That right should only be interfered with in extraordinary circumstances. Drug addiction sometimes meets that level. But that drug addiction needs to be proved. Subjecting the family to un-needed intervention causes harm to those children. And it causes harm to the children that do need intervention, because child protection social workers are made busier dealing with cases that they need not deal with.
- belorn 10y agoWhat benefit is there to harass and increase the stress levels of the patient? If the mother test positive, that itself justify additional tests of the child and the breast milk, without the need to accuse the patient first. The first priority in a hospital should be the health of the patients, and only onces that is ensured should the hospital accuse the patient and bring up secondary concerns like CPS. Something that was missing in this story was the lack of dialog between the hospital staff and patient. False positives is possible, so why not send a trained psychiatrist at a positive? They can talk to the patient and check if the result make sense, and if nothing else, start address issues such as postpartum depression.
- FireBeyond 10y ago"The first priority in a hospital should be the health of the patients" Like looking out for a newborn by discussing with the mother the ramifications of breastfeeding in light of multiple failed tests?
- frotak 10y agoDo you know what's worse than an infant being hooked up to a morphine drip? A spontaneously aborted fetus because the stress of withdrawal during pregnancy was too much for the mother's body. If an addict becomes pregnant and seeks treatment (which during pregnancy would likely consist of continued dosage of an opioid in the form of methadone) then there is the risk that she will give birth to an opioid dependent infant (or not - it's only something on the order of 1/3rd of infants born to mothers who use opioids who suffer from NAS). But yes...treat the parent as subhuman. Rip the infant away from its mother. To punish the mother because she's bad. Nevermind the fact that there has been a strong link demonstrated by neonatal bonding between mother and infant and lower rates of NAS as well as overall better outcomes for the child.