“The concern is that it will be more widespread,” Hayes, who wrote a commentary published with the new study, told Reuters Health.

She said in her experience, a few babies who are born in opiate withdrawal have mothers that needed to be on strong painkillers after they were in a car accident, for example. And a very small number have moms who are addicted to heroin.

But about 85 percent of the cases she sees are a result of women who abuse prescription drugs.

“This has become a crisis condition in neonatology,” Hayes said.

One of the concerns is that there aren’t enough methadone clinics for pregnant women who are addicted to painkillers and are also often suffering from depression and anxiety. Strategies that involve giving safer substitute drugs to addicted women, but no counseling or extra support, typically don’t work that well, she added.

And stopping opiate use abruptly can also be dangerous for moms and babies, Patrick said.

The researchers agreed there’s a need for more research on how best to care for drug-addicted women and babies who are born in withdrawal - as well as an urgency to spread the message about the dangers of opiate use in pregnancy.

“We need to put the light on this problem, and get it out there as a public health crisis,” Hayes said.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, online April 30, 2012.