Crack Babies Research Paper
Joshua J Lashley
March 20, 2005
Crack babies and there every day problems.
Dr Wigfall
Eng 120
When walking through my neighborhood you see a lot of things that could really hurt you. Things you wouldn’t ever dream of. A nightmare is what you could call it, which is what you would really see. Walk on the wrong street at the wrong time you could get beat up or jump for a couple of dollars or even your shoes, just so someone could get high, and if you walk through the wrong path you could be approached by a prostitute, a pimp, or even a drug dealer trying to get into your pockets or even get you to work for them.
On day I was walking up the road to play basketball and I saw something that I would never dream of. I saw a woman …show more content…
that was pregnant lying in the ditch with a needle hanging out of her arm. This was not the type of needle that you get from a doctor or a hospital. You could tell that this was doing drugs, crack cocaine in public and in front of everyone. She didn’t care where she was and what would happen to her at that moment. All she wanted and cared about was a fix. She was killing herself and her unborn child slowly.
One of America’s rapid growing problems today is crack babies. When you use the term or even hear the term crack babies, you think that the baby have been put on the drug or is even doing it themselves. But do you know as a child, you have no say so if you are a crack baby or not. So many pregnant women do drugs everyday. And the number is just increasing by the hour. Your mother has so much say so in your life. While you are in her womb, it is her who decides to drink that beer are smoke that cigarette. And when she sticks that needle in her arm, she is deciding you life for you right there. She is letting you know that you will have a life long of problems that will cost a lot of money (that most of the time she don’t have) to fix. But if they would just stop and think about what they are doing and how much damage they are causing I think that they would fight that desire to do crack until you are born. They would really hold out for that nine months so that you can have a better life then they might have had.
The kids that are addicted to crack and exposed to it really do have a life long health problem that will take time, money, pray, and enlightenment for a 10 dollar bag of crack.
Thousands of thousands of dollars are spent to maintain help, and rehabilitate the babies. Today in the U.S., 11 percent of new born babies are born exposed top crack in the womb. But that does not say that they are addicted to the drug. Studies show that many babies are exposed to crack cocaine in the womb but only become addicted to the drug over a period. Meaning that the mother has to become high more then just once to get the baby addicted to the drug. If the baby gets high twice within a days time period the doctors say that they are addicted to the drug. But another study shows that as a mother takes a hit of crack cocaine, the drug stays in the mothers fluid (which is where the baby is kept) for a time span of two weeks to two in a half weeks. Causing the baby to be re-exposed to the drug over and over will in the womb. So saying that, it is really safe to say that some babies are addicted to crack cocaine from the first time there mother do the drug, since the drug says in the women fluids which are in the womb for two weeks and the baby stays in the womb, the baby is bound to be re-exposed to the drug twice in a …show more content…
day.
When a pregnant woman takes a hit of crack cocaine, the fetus loses sufficient blood and air which causes it to suffocate just briefly.
A normal person that does crack stays high for about forty minutes to and hour and thirty minutes. While when a pregnant women only stays high for twenty minutes at a time. They only stay high for twenty minutes because the baby takes up more then half the effect of the drug. And once again the baby keeps getting high for up to two weeks. Now that the mother is not even getting more half the effects of the drug, she goes back to get more and more until she feels that is good or she has her fix. And now the more the woman gets high the more longer the drug stays in her system, which causes the baby to stay high. Fifty percent of crack babies stay high more the two thirds of the time they are in the
womb.
The first few "crack" babies - infants exposed to cocaine in utero by their crack- smoking mothers - were born nearly 15 years ago. Today, a wave of children with what has come to be known as Crack Syndrome are entering the nation's public school systems. Increasing numbers of these drug-exposed children are now in kindergarten, first and second grade - and America's schools are unprepared. In fact, society in general has provided inadequate support for handling these often difficult youngsters. The number of crack babies born each year grows bigger and bigger. Between 375,000 and
700,000 "crack" babies are born in the United States, but neither the Department of
Education nor the Department of Health and Human Services has yet to set up a comprehensive preschool intervention program. There are only five states that define drug-exposed babies and children as eligible for special education, says Patricia O'Keefe, director of communications for the National Association for Perinatal Addiction Research and Education (NAPARE). There are a lot of crack babies born each year but who really pays for them. To hospitalize and birth a normal newborn baby it cost approximately
$2,000. But to hospitalize and give birth to a crack baby the cost are much more higher.
Hospital care of a crack exposed neonate, with round-the-clock nursing, monitors, blood and urine tests, high-tech equipment and social service evaluations, costs $11,000. But the mother never pays for it, since crack-addicted mothers are not likely to carry insurance the government pays for them. Some of the tax payer’s money go towards the
Birth of crack addicted babies each year. Drug -exposed newborns tend to cry more frequently than unexposed babies. Most babies tend to suffer a lot through withdrawal because of the pain that comes from not having the drug. The children that go through this, when held, tend to arch their backs, pull away and cry until they exhaust themselves.
The children really never want to be touched or held. Experts note that these behaviors interfere with child-parent bonding. But Bathing is one of the few ways nurses have found to comfort drug-exposed newborns. Soap and warm water soothe the frantic babies. The bath also removes the sweat that envelops them as they go through withdrawal. After the bath, the infants are wrapped tightly in blankets so that when they cry their arms won't flail about and cause the babies to re-stimulate themselves. Short- staffed, nurses place the babies on mechanical rocking beds. The large cylinders on either side of the baby assure that the infant won't slide as the bed moves back and forth. Most of the babies are born with low birth weight and so even have small heads.
As the babies grow up they tend to become violent and always want to fight. For most of the crack children, the slightest disruptions will set-off a temper tantrum which results in crying, fighting or self inflicted injures. The children have extreme mood swings. Researchers have learned that early intervention that provides interaction with other children, individualized work on children's problem areas and parent counseling can help at-risk children improve significantly. Thirty-four percent of at-risk children exhibit "extreme emotional and behavioral tendencies along with a low tolerance for frustration," according to a recent study. In one-on-one situations, most of the children were able to focus their attention. The behavioral problems occurred during less structured times. I feel that if you don’t keep an eye on the children then you will be in for a long and ruff time. Each child needs one on one attention to focus on what they are doing so that they may say out of trouble. Alana M. Pieper states in an article that she writes about crack children that “CRACK is like a journey with no destination. The road signs glitter with hope for the future and the highways are paved with well-placed emotional arguments, but the road just keeps going; the trip itself is fruitless. What long-term purpose can this organization serve? The money most likely goes toward the users' drug habits, leaving the actual drug problem unhindered. This program is reminiscent of the needle exchange plan that started a few years ago, in which drug addicts were urged to exchange their used needles for sterilized ones in order to stop the spread of diseases such as HIV. The mentalities in both cases are those of quick- fix remedies, with no thought given to the implications that they bring to the surface of the drug war. The song writer says that the children are our future. And if that is so and so many children are being born exposed to crack the future looks real bad to me. Why are all these women killing there children. When will they wake up and see what they are doing.
March 20, 2005
Crack babies and there every day problems.
Dr Wigfall
Eng 120
When walking through my neighborhood you see a lot of things that could really hurt you. Things you wouldn’t ever dream of. A nightmare is what you could call it, which is what you would really see. Walk on the wrong street at the wrong time you could get beat up or jump for a couple of dollars or even your shoes, just so someone could get high, and if you walk through the wrong path you could be approached by a prostitute, a pimp, or even a drug dealer trying to get into your pockets or even get you to work for them.
On day I was walking up the road to play basketball and I saw something that I would never dream of. I saw a woman …show more content…
that was pregnant lying in the ditch with a needle hanging out of her arm. This was not the type of needle that you get from a doctor or a hospital. You could tell that this was doing drugs, crack cocaine in public and in front of everyone. She didn’t care where she was and what would happen to her at that moment. All she wanted and cared about was a fix. She was killing herself and her unborn child slowly.
One of America’s rapid growing problems today is crack babies. When you use the term or even hear the term crack babies, you think that the baby have been put on the drug or is even doing it themselves. But do you know as a child, you have no say so if you are a crack baby or not. So many pregnant women do drugs everyday. And the number is just increasing by the hour. Your mother has so much say so in your life. While you are in her womb, it is her who decides to drink that beer are smoke that cigarette. And when she sticks that needle in her arm, she is deciding you life for you right there. She is letting you know that you will have a life long of problems that will cost a lot of money (that most of the time she don’t have) to fix. But if they would just stop and think about what they are doing and how much damage they are causing I think that they would fight that desire to do crack until you are born. They would really hold out for that nine months so that you can have a better life then they might have had.
The kids that are addicted to crack and exposed to it really do have a life long health problem that will take time, money, pray, and enlightenment for a 10 dollar bag of crack.
Thousands of thousands of dollars are spent to maintain help, and rehabilitate the babies. Today in the U.S., 11 percent of new born babies are born exposed top crack in the womb. But that does not say that they are addicted to the drug. Studies show that many babies are exposed to crack cocaine in the womb but only become addicted to the drug over a period. Meaning that the mother has to become high more then just once to get the baby addicted to the drug. If the baby gets high twice within a days time period the doctors say that they are addicted to the drug. But another study shows that as a mother takes a hit of crack cocaine, the drug stays in the mothers fluid (which is where the baby is kept) for a time span of two weeks to two in a half weeks. Causing the baby to be re-exposed to the drug over and over will in the womb. So saying that, it is really safe to say that some babies are addicted to crack cocaine from the first time there mother do the drug, since the drug says in the women fluids which are in the womb for two weeks and the baby stays in the womb, the baby is bound to be re-exposed to the drug twice in a …show more content…
day.
When a pregnant woman takes a hit of crack cocaine, the fetus loses sufficient blood and air which causes it to suffocate just briefly.
A normal person that does crack stays high for about forty minutes to and hour and thirty minutes. While when a pregnant women only stays high for twenty minutes at a time. They only stay high for twenty minutes because the baby takes up more then half the effect of the drug. And once again the baby keeps getting high for up to two weeks. Now that the mother is not even getting more half the effects of the drug, she goes back to get more and more until she feels that is good or she has her fix. And now the more the woman gets high the more longer the drug stays in her system, which causes the baby to stay high. Fifty percent of crack babies stay high more the two thirds of the time they are in the
womb.
The first few "crack" babies - infants exposed to cocaine in utero by their crack- smoking mothers - were born nearly 15 years ago. Today, a wave of children with what has come to be known as Crack Syndrome are entering the nation's public school systems. Increasing numbers of these drug-exposed children are now in kindergarten, first and second grade - and America's schools are unprepared. In fact, society in general has provided inadequate support for handling these often difficult youngsters. The number of crack babies born each year grows bigger and bigger. Between 375,000 and
700,000 "crack" babies are born in the United States, but neither the Department of
Education nor the Department of Health and Human Services has yet to set up a comprehensive preschool intervention program. There are only five states that define drug-exposed babies and children as eligible for special education, says Patricia O'Keefe, director of communications for the National Association for Perinatal Addiction Research and Education (NAPARE). There are a lot of crack babies born each year but who really pays for them. To hospitalize and birth a normal newborn baby it cost approximately
$2,000. But to hospitalize and give birth to a crack baby the cost are much more higher.
Hospital care of a crack exposed neonate, with round-the-clock nursing, monitors, blood and urine tests, high-tech equipment and social service evaluations, costs $11,000. But the mother never pays for it, since crack-addicted mothers are not likely to carry insurance the government pays for them. Some of the tax payer’s money go towards the
Birth of crack addicted babies each year. Drug -exposed newborns tend to cry more frequently than unexposed babies. Most babies tend to suffer a lot through withdrawal because of the pain that comes from not having the drug. The children that go through this, when held, tend to arch their backs, pull away and cry until they exhaust themselves.
The children really never want to be touched or held. Experts note that these behaviors interfere with child-parent bonding. But Bathing is one of the few ways nurses have found to comfort drug-exposed newborns. Soap and warm water soothe the frantic babies. The bath also removes the sweat that envelops them as they go through withdrawal. After the bath, the infants are wrapped tightly in blankets so that when they cry their arms won't flail about and cause the babies to re-stimulate themselves. Short- staffed, nurses place the babies on mechanical rocking beds. The large cylinders on either side of the baby assure that the infant won't slide as the bed moves back and forth. Most of the babies are born with low birth weight and so even have small heads.
As the babies grow up they tend to become violent and always want to fight. For most of the crack children, the slightest disruptions will set-off a temper tantrum which results in crying, fighting or self inflicted injures. The children have extreme mood swings. Researchers have learned that early intervention that provides interaction with other children, individualized work on children's problem areas and parent counseling can help at-risk children improve significantly. Thirty-four percent of at-risk children exhibit "extreme emotional and behavioral tendencies along with a low tolerance for frustration," according to a recent study. In one-on-one situations, most of the children were able to focus their attention. The behavioral problems occurred during less structured times. I feel that if you don’t keep an eye on the children then you will be in for a long and ruff time. Each child needs one on one attention to focus on what they are doing so that they may say out of trouble. Alana M. Pieper states in an article that she writes about crack children that “CRACK is like a journey with no destination. The road signs glitter with hope for the future and the highways are paved with well-placed emotional arguments, but the road just keeps going; the trip itself is fruitless. What long-term purpose can this organization serve? The money most likely goes toward the users' drug habits, leaving the actual drug problem unhindered. This program is reminiscent of the needle exchange plan that started a few years ago, in which drug addicts were urged to exchange their used needles for sterilized ones in order to stop the spread of diseases such as HIV. The mentalities in both cases are those of quick- fix remedies, with no thought given to the implications that they bring to the surface of the drug war. The song writer says that the children are our future. And if that is so and so many children are being born exposed to crack the future looks real bad to me. Why are all these women killing there children. When will they wake up and see what they are doing.