Thursday, December 1, 2016, 1:39 PM

Thursday, December 1, 2016, 1:39 PM

A large number of babies born in Muskogee start their lives addicted to drugs, according to officials at Eastar Hospital, who met with MuskogeeNOW today to discuss numbers that had been floating around social media.

Those numbers, it turns out, were not accurate, but were based in real numbers.

Social media quotes of Eastar’s CEO stated that 27 percent of babies born in Muskogee were addicted to methamphetamine. The true numbers may be less, according to Julee Nave, director of women and children services at the hospital.

“Thirty-two percent of the babies admitted to the special care nursery are drug addicted,” she said, but did not have numbers immediately available on how many babies that was as compared to total births.

Dr. Jonathan Baldwin speculated that the 27 percent figure might have come from a one-month snapshot from earlier in the year.

“In April, 85 percent of births met the criteria for drug screening,” he said. “Of those, 27 percent tested positive for drugs.”

Opioids account for more and worse cases than meth, Baldwin said.

“It’s horrible to watch,” babies in withdrawal, Nave said. “They shake, cry, hurt ... It’s terrible.”

Part of the problem may be the lack of alternatives for women addicted to drugs who become pregnant, Baldwin said. There are no detox programs in Muskogee, and although he is currently working on it, there are no doctors authorized to dispense suboxone, an opioid replacement that does not engender the kinds of negative side effects most opioids do.

The hospital is working to compile a six-month snapshot to give definitive numbers on exactly how many babies are born addicted, and based on experiential evidence, that number might climb above 10 percent. Those numbers do not include infant deaths from drugs, of which 2015 saw four, according to Baldwin.

The hospital is looking to work with law enforcement and civic organizations to seek ways to prevent drug addicted babies, from a suggestion by Police Officer Lincoln Anderson, who said each entity would bring its own approach, and by working together, the group effort might be more successful.

“One baby born addicted is too many,” hospital spokesman Michael Gillian said. “We are committed to finding ways to address this problem.”