Having a Baby? 5 Tips to Avoid Problems From Flawed Drug Testing at the Hospital

Filed
4:00 p.m. EST

02.13.2026

Hospitals routinely use unreliable drug exams at childbirth, and lots of mother and father are reported to baby welfare companies and the police. Right here’s what you are able to do.

The Marshall Challenge has reported extensively on hospital drug testing of pregnant sufferers. Hospitals routinely use drug exams which are quick and low-cost, however are extremely susceptible to misinterpretation and have false optimistic charges as excessive as 50%. That’s led to oldsters getting reported to baby welfare authorities and police, forcibly separated from their kids, interrogated, arrested or prosecuted. Some folks have confronted felony expenses over optimistic exams brought on by authorized CBD gummies and morphine offered throughout childbirth. Many of those drug exams had been administered with out sufferers’ information or consent.

When you’re anticipating, or planning a being pregnant, you may really feel particularly involved about this. Listed here are 5 ideas that will help you navigate the stress of drug testing throughout your baby’s beginning.

Ask your hospital for its drug testing coverage.

Each hospital’s coverage is completely different. Some drug take a look at each single affected person who is available in to offer beginning, whereas others use sure standards, corresponding to whether or not the affected person had restricted prenatal care, hypertension and even dangerous enamel. Other than having sufferers signal common consent to care types, many hospitals that drug take a look at don’t disclose this truth to sufferers. In the event that they do disclose, hospitals hardly ever inform sufferers that the outcomes may very well be shared with authorities.

As a affected person, you could have the suitable to know what medical procedures can be carried out and what could also be carried out with this data. Ask your supplier to reveal your hospital’s coverage on drug testing and reporting.

Asking for this may occasionally really feel intimidating — and understandably so. Previous to writing these tales, reporter Shoshana Walter requested her physician, and located that the query was met with suspicion. We advise sharing a hyperlink to The Marshall Challenge’s tales along with your physician to assist clarify the explanation in your request. Some particular questions you may additionally think about asking:

Do you drug take a look at sufferers who are available in to offer beginning?
What are your standards for figuring out who to drug take a look at?
What does the hospital do with a optimistic end result?
Does the hospital carry out a affirmation take a look at?
Who’s answerable for reviewing and deciphering the outcomes? What does that evaluate appear to be?
Will the hospital share a optimistic end result with baby welfare authorities or police?
Who can I enchantment to if I disagree with a end result?

Lookup your state’s coverage on our web site.

We spent a 12 months gathering and verifying information and state insurance policies to find out whether or not and the way usually baby welfare companies share studies of alleged being pregnant drug use with police or prosecutors. We discovered that baby welfare companies shared these allegations with legislation enforcement greater than 70,000 instances over six years. And that’s solely in 21 states — a big undercount.

Referral insurance policies range wildly. In some states, like Michigan and Massachusetts, referrals to police are uncommon and solely happen if there are different allegations of felony conduct or issues of safety. In different states, corresponding to Georgia and Minnesota, each allegation of being pregnant substance use is shipped to legislation enforcement, even when baby welfare staff dismiss the allegations. The best frequency of referrals occurred in Oklahoma, the place one in 24 births resulted in a legislation enforcement referral.

Lookup your state’s coverage on our web site. It could offer you some peace of thoughts. Or it could encourage you to take among the precautions detailed right here.

In case you are drug examined and the result’s optimistic, ask what sort of testing methodology the hospital used and ask for a affirmation take a look at.

Most hospitals use urine drug screens which are fast and low-cost (as little as $10 per take a look at), however simply misinterpreted with false optimistic charges as excessive as 50%. To get extra correct outcomes, toxicologists suggest a second, extra exact (and dearer) take a look at utilizing mass spectrometry. Your hospital might not provide such a take a look at, however ask for one. In case your hospital refuses and studies your optimistic end result to baby welfare authorities, you may pay out of pocket at a non-public lab to get your individual take a look at carried out. This can be tough for a lot of households to afford, however some households have discovered that these impartial exams assist alleviate the considerations of authorities who’re investigating them.

Ask for the total medical report out of your baby’s beginning.

When you didn’t use illicit substances, there may very well be many causes for a optimistic take a look at, from a false optimistic brought on by widespread meals and medicines, to medicines the hospitals gave you throughout childbirth. Some hospital-administered medicines can even go on to the infant, main infants to check optimistic on drug exams. Be certain that to request your whole and your new child’s medical data, in an effort to see for your self what medicines got to you, and whether or not they might have triggered a optimistic take a look at end result. You too can request data out of your different medical suppliers to show that you simply had been legally prescribed a medicine that confirmed up on a drug take a look at.

Hospitals usually have full discretion over whether or not or to not display for medicine, however as soon as a optimistic result’s in hand, the choice to report it to baby welfare companies turns into extra sophisticated. Our earlier reporting discovered that a minimum of 27 states explicitly required hospitals to alert baby welfare after a optimistic display or potential substance publicity, however not a single state required hospitals to substantiate take a look at outcomes earlier than reporting them. That is basically the alternative of office drug testing. Most staff who’re drug examined on the job are entitled beneath state and federal legal guidelines to sure protections, corresponding to affirmation exams and a evaluate from a specifically educated physician to find out whether or not a meals or treatment might have triggered a optimistic end result. Our reporting discovered that not a single state extends such protections to pregnant sufferers.

As well as, we discovered that 13 states robotically share all such studies with police or prosecutors, together with circumstances which are unfounded or contain sufferers who took prescription medicines legally, as their medical doctors instructed.

You’ll be able to attain out to your consultant to demand higher protections. State and federal lawmakers might take legislative motion to higher defend mother and father from the results of non-consensual drug testing. You too can submit a shopper or civil rights criticism. Attorneys common in New York and New Jersey have taken motion in opposition to hospitals that drug take a look at with out consent.