 and 75,000 babies were born exposed to drugs. Three hundred. And 75,000. Babies. Some of these babies were actually born addicted. Some premature. And some with organ, limb, and facial deformities. And some with brain damage. It's truly heartbreaking. Especially when you look around and see how joyful childhood can be. And the parents of these babies, well, the fact is they come from all ethnic and economic backgrounds. Some are addicted to drugs like cocaine, crack, heroin, or alcohol. And some are weekend partiers. They drink beer, smoke pot, cigarettes, or use inhalants like spray paint. What's so frightening is that experts now believe even small amounts of alcohol and drugs can put a baby's health at risk. Including a lot of over-the-counter medicines like whole remedies, cough, syrup, and aspirin. Considering how tiny and vulnerable an unborn baby's body is, there's no wonder there's no such thing as a safe amount. Surrounding the baby inside the mother's womb is the placenta. The organ that transfers nourishment from the mother to the baby. Not only does the baby receive nutrients that are good for the baby, but the baby can also receive drugs and alcohol which easily cross the placenta. Because the baby is very immature. All of its organs are just forming. And consequently, the baby's unable to break down these drugs as quickly as your adult body can break them down. So the baby will be affected by these drugs long after you have no effects. And in fact, some of the breakdown products, for example of cocaine, are even more powerful in terms of their impact on the baby because it's actually broken down differently inside the baby than in an adult. And it's more of a neurotoxin, more of a toxin to the baby's developing brain than is cocaine in an adult. The bottom line is, it's not just the pregnant woman who takes the drink or uses the drug. Her baby does too. Another very important factor in the way drugs affect unborn babies is how far along they are in their development. You see, there are various stages in the growth of an unborn baby and each stage can be affected in different ways. Pregnancy is broken down into three, three month periods called trimesters. Each of these trimesters is different, yet equally important. In terms of the growth and development taking place in the baby, all drugs can change or even stop this development. For example, in the first trimester, there's rapid growth and development of the baby's vital organs like the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys as well as the brain and spinal cord. As a matter of fact, the brain and spinal cord are the first systems that begin to develop even before the heart. Exposure to drugs like alcohol, cocaine, crack and heroin can interfere with this development. Brain damage caused by drugs can affect the child's capacity to think while spinal cord damage can affect their ability to walk. Malformations can also occur in vital organs such as the kidneys and with developing arms and legs. For example, sometimes various organs lose their blood supply because the cocaine is what we call a vasoconstrictor. It causes the blood vessels to clamp down. So the baby can in fact kill a part of its bowel. And so the baby, when it's born, will have what's called a bowel obstruction and will need to have surgery so that it'll be able to eat. Other times, we see that the baby might actually lose some of its fingers or toes because again, the blood supply to those organs was cut off as a result of being exposed to cocaine. It's suspected that the third week of pregnancy is when alcohol in particular can do most of its damage. From the eighth week right up to birth, the baby undergoes its greatest weight gain. Exposure to drugs during these crucial weeks and months can slow down the baby's overall growth and cause mental and behavioral problems. Drugs can also cause the baby to be born prematurely. In other words, before the full nine months are up. These babies are underweight and can have a smaller than normal head. As you can imagine, this could have a serious effect on intelligence, but the problems don't stop here. Babies exposed to drugs like cocaine, crack or heroin can actually be born addicted to them. With heroin, they experience withdrawal symptoms, shaking, vomiting, seizures, even death, just like an adult would. The only difference of course is these are just tiny little newborn babies. The baby is usually very, very jittery and will move incessantly in its crib. Sometimes it moves so much that it'll actually rub off the skin from its chin, its knees, its elbows. So the syndromes can be quite terrifying in fact to watch. They can have problems eating, sleeping and forming an attachment to their mothers. They cry a lot at a high pitch as if in pain and it's very hard to comfort them. Later in childhood, these kids can have problems in school including learning disabilities. The most apparent thing that you can see is around what your child is the behavior and their attitude. They have these violent tempers. I don't know if it's from cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, pills, whatever we used went into their bodies. When my child was born, they told me that he was heroin addicted and I couldn't understand that because I never used heroin to my knowledge. But what they're putting in drugs today, you don't know what you're smoking. You don't know what you're taking. You probably don't know what you're drinking. I have a seven-year-old. Her name is Kenya and Kenya is deaf. Kenya was born a pound and 13 ounces. You don't have to have a child born to have any problems using cocaine. You can use alcohol in marijuana. And you tell yourself that's okay, but it's not okay. I drank a lot. I used a lot of heroin. I used a lot of cocaine, a lot of black beauty. I mean, I just used everything. I wasn't aware that I was even pregnant with her until I was seven months pregnant. I never felt her move. Tiffany was born what they call a stress baby. She didn't know how to swallow. She was having severe withdrawals. I never got to see my baby. They took her from me and I found her strapped to a metal table. They had tubes all in her down her throat and they wouldn't tell me anything. But I knew in my heart what it was from. Amazingly though, studies show there is hope for these children. Hope that with a lot of love and care, they can overcome some of their problems. The cocaine, crack and heroin aren't the only drugs that can cause serious problems for an unborn child. Nicotine, the drug found in cigarettes for example, can cross the placenta and cut down the flow of blood, nutrients and oxygen the baby needs. This puts the child at risk for breathing problems such as bronchitis and asthma later in life. It can also cause premature births. Or worse, the pregnancy could end in the miscarriage, meaning the baby died before it's even born. If you're pregnant, it's definitely important for you to stop smoking altogether or at least cut down as much as you possibly can. The reason is that smoking during pregnancy is associated with an increased chance of miscarriage and of having a low birth weight baby. Now you might say, what's the problem of having a little baby? It's just a miniature baby. But those babies have many more complications in the nursery. And they're more likely to have potentially some developmental problems later. Smoking marijuana can cause some of the same problems and more. Sometimes babies exposed to marijuana are born with tremors. They can be unresponsive to things that go on around them. And later on, they may have learning disabilities. But there's one drug that's been proven to actually cause mental retardation and abnormalities of the face and body. One drug whose effects can be irreversible. This drug is legal, it's easy to get, and it's even advertised. Alcohol. It's all around you, on TV, in the movies, wherever you look. But it can be one of the most harmful substances to an unborn baby. Exposing a baby to alcohol before birth can cause a condition known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS. Believe it or not, FAS is the number one preventable cause of mental retardation. A baby suffering from FAS can have an abnormally small head. And as you can see here, an underdeveloped brain. The brain of the child exposed to alcohol is much smaller than the brain of the child who has not been exposed to alcohol. In addition, it's smoother. The normal brain has lots of little curves and grooves and holes and bumps in it. All of those represent brain cells. In the brain of a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome child, what you see is a brain that is much smoother with fewer of those bumps and fewer of those grooves, which is a reflection of the fact that alcohol actually kills cells. They can also have facial abnormalities, like small eyes with drooping lids, a thin upper lip and a short upturned nose. Sometimes these babies are born with heart and lung problems too. And as they grow older, the problems can get worse and may include behavioral and social difficulties. You know, you still might hear people say that drinking a little beer or wine while you're pregnant is okay. That it relaxes you. That it's only hard liquor you have to stay away from. But the truth is a 12 ounce can of beer, a glass of wine or a wine cooler all contain the same amount of alcohol as a mixed drink. Alcohol is alcohol. And when you're pregnant, there is no safe amount. Even infants are, in this case, fetuses and subsequent newborns who were exposed to only very, very small amounts of alcohol, maybe only one drink per day have been shown to have some risk for having some neurologic and learning problems later on. So the recommendation at this point is that there's no safe level of alcohol usage during pregnancy. The problems we've been describing are just a few of the devastating ways drugs, alcohol and tobacco can affect an unborn baby. But there are two ways we haven't discussed yet and they're the most terrible of all. The first one is AIDS, which you probably know can be transmitted by injecting drugs using a needle contaminated with the virus. If a pregnant woman contracts AIDS in this way or in any other way for that matter, her unborn baby can also get the disease. Just as tragic is something called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS. It happens between the ages of one week and one year. Everything seems to be okay with the baby and then one night it dies in its sleep. Nobody knows exactly why it happens but they do know that it happens more often to babies who were exposed to certain drugs before birth. We've seen how drugs can affect an unborn baby and a growing child and while this is undoubtedly the most awful consequence of using drugs during pregnancy, it's not the only one. Parents and relatives of these children pay a heavy emotional price. One of my sons died. I have a door in the side of one drug, I suppose. And to write today, they said it wasn't because of the drug but some still deep down inside said if I hadn't been using, maybe I might have had a chance, you know. And it's still a lot of guilt I'm feeling right today behind it. Every year when it's birthday it comes up I feel a lot of guilt, a lot of anger. I smoked cocaine for eight of those months. I was pregnant with those twins. Didn't know that I was having twins. Just thought I was having one. I lost one of my children. I live with a guilt every day. That's the saddest part is this guilt that you feel because I've done this to these children. My family still to this day has a hard time with Tiffany. They didn't know how to deal with her. She was too wild for them. And they never, to this day, my father still really doesn't acknowledge her. And it hurts her a lot. You know, and the guilt of watching this child and hoping that this child is still breathing and that it's going to move and that it's going to react normally and that it's not going to be handicapped. You know, it's an overwhelming fear. There's also the medical, educational and social costs involved in caring for babies exposed to drugs, alcohol and tobacco. That's a cost we all bear and it runs into the billions every year. You know, sometimes when people think about what it would be like to be a parent, they focus on how great it would be to have someone to love and love you back. To take them to the park or the movies, play ball, stuff like that. But that's only a small part of what parenting is really all about. Parenting is more about responsibility, you know, providing food and a home, clothes and an education. Yeah, it's about setting a good example and taking the time, even when you're tired or sick, to be there for the child. And as we've seen, a big part of that responsibility begins even before the child is born, making sure they get the best possible start on life by not exposing them to alcohol, drugs or tobacco. That probably seems like mostly the woman's responsibility and that is true. It is, but males have an important role too. By supporting and encouraging the woman to take care of herself and to avoid doing anything that could jeopardize the baby's health. And it's important for the male to avoid using drugs himself, like cocaine, which is now believed to affect a man's sperm and cigarettes, which create second-hand smoke that can harm the mother and her baby. But there is still a lot more that we need to learn about what happens when babies are exposed to drugs, alcohol and tobacco. But one thing is for sure. Every time a pregnant woman takes a drink, uses drugs or smokes, her baby's chances for a healthy start and a productive life are reduced. And there's nothing that little baby can do about it.