Does OB/GYN conduct drug tests for pregant mothers?

[eochaidh94]

I was just reading an article on Yahoo about high incidents of babies born addicted to opiates and going through withdrawals. I was just curious as to whether pregnant mothers are tested for drugs during routine prenatal visits? Does that violate their privacy? It would make sense to drug test since that is something important to the health of the baby. When I had my daughter I don't remember them doing any kind of drug testing as I wasn't worried about it anyway. Is drug testing an infant at the discretion of the hospital staff if they suspect something or is it a blanket policy for all births?

I realize there are privacy laws and such but it would make sense to drug test women at prenatal visits that way a drug dependency problem can be addressed right away. Or at the very least child protective services would have a heads up about a problem.

[mads]

It is against the law for them to drug test a pregnant woman unless they suspect drug use, then they get CPS involved.

[bing49]

The legal decision on that was that drug tested pregnant women was a violation of their reproductive rights. Holding them accountable for their drug-addicted babies was also declared a violation of their reproductive rights. This happened in the 80s with the crack-baby epidemic.

[nann]

Some do some don't. At the last OBGYN I was at, she said they would drug test me close to delivery or something of that nature.

[chatima]

im 18 weeks and they never drug tested me. It does seem like they should as its def a concern to the baby, but i can see alot of moms getting upset and calling it an invasion of privacy, so i doubt it will ever become procedure. tho i dont see why it would matter if its "invasion of privacy" since drugs are illegal and ur not supposed to be on them anyway.

This issue kind of ticks me off, because i know this girl from my town (i dont know her well, she was kind of a friend of a friend) but anyway, she had a baby that was born addicted to a couple different drugs. apparently the babys withdrawal symptoms were so bad that the doctors were dosing him low levels of a couple of the pain pills he was addicted to, the rest he had to suffer through. I found this thouroughly sickening, who would put their child through this??

[claudius]

28 weeks and i never have been...
im guessing if your doctor suspects your doing drugs then they might ask for a drug test to see the levels you might have.
its better that the doctor knows about the risk of babies developing drug addictions before they are born then wait till afterwards.
i pretty sure if your doctor thinks its a bigger problem and they inform welfare then you are actually made to have a drug test.
but other then that i havent been drug tested, not that it would matter because i dont do drugs anyway :)
but if you really want to know, you should get a complete print out of all the tests done in your pregnancy for your gynecologist appointment and that will tell you if any drug tests have been done.