Hospitals alert child welfare services when women are prescribed childbirth medication

Hospitals across the U.S. are routinely reporting pregnant women to child welfare authorities based on positive drug tests caused by medications given during labor and delivery. These medications include pain relievers, anxiety medications, and blood pressure meds. The hospital drug testing of pregnant women, which began in the 1980s, has led to numerous cases of false positives, errors, and misinterpretations. The consequences of these faulty tests can range from child welfare investigations to actual removal of children from their parents.
In some cases, women who have never used drugs have lost custody of their children due to a positive drug test at the hospital. The system is set up in a way that primed for reporting, but no state requires hospitals to confirm test results before reporting them. The lack of safeguards and proper policies at hospitals has led to a normalization of reporting patients over faulty test results.
Researchers and medical professionals have warned that drug tests are not the best way to identify substance use problems, and questionnaires may be more effective. Despite these warnings, hospitals continue to test labor and delivery patients without proper procedures in place, leading to unnecessary investigations and trauma for patients. The story highlights the shortcomings of the current system and the need for changes to ensure that patients are not unjustly targeted based on faulty test results.

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