SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Cocaine Linked to Birth Defects

Cocaine use during pregnancy appears to be causing an epidemic of irreversible birth defects, including heart defects and possible retardation. Babies born to women who used cocaine during pregnancy tend to be smaller at birth and have smaller head circumference, and may go through withdrawal like babies born to women using heroin and methadone, said Bertis Little of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Little and his colleagues recently reported that “cocaine infants” had significantly more congenital heart defects, primarily holes in the heart muscle. Such babies are also thought to face a greater risk of brain hemorrhages and high blood pressure.

The study of 53 women who used cocaine continuously during pregnancy found that their babies were 10 times more likely to have heart defects than those born to women who did not use it.

“My major concern right now is that these kids might have some major structural abnormalities” not detected at birth, Little said at an American Heart Assn. seminar.

“One of the first things we want to do right now is a physical growth study to see if small birth weight translates into small children,” Little said. “We want to see if reduced head circumference (at birth) translates into reduced head circumference later on. If if does, that means they’re going to be developmentally delayed.”

Some experts have estimated that 10% of pregnant women in the United States use cocaine, Little said.