“What is an abyss if not the tremor of a child who has taken drugs through the umbilical cord of the person who conceived it?”, A child in withdrawal? The journalist Angela Iantosca has made a journey into the world of maternity “contaminated” by drugs, collecting data, interviews, direct testimonies, hearing experts and trying to shed light on a submerged one that is often afraid to see. His book, The Monkey in the Cradle. Children in abstinence crisis “(Paoline) will be released on 10 November: it was written collecting material and information in many Italian communities, from those linked to the Fict (Italian Federation of Therapeutic Communities) in San Patrignano.
The san (Neonatal Withdrawal Syndrome) concerns 60-80% of children born to mothers who have used drugs and, in particular, opioids, during pregnancy. A disturbance that is increasingly widespread in all countries of the world. And also in Italy.
“I have been involved in drug addiction for many years. I started in 2015 when, for the first time, I entered the San Patrignano community for a service that I had to do for Live Life»Explains Iantosca. “From there everything changed: I felt a punch in the stomach and the urge to give voice to those stories.” First the book «A thin white line» (Perrone, 2018) was born, then «In Trincea per Amore» (Paoline, 2020). “But the drug has infinite facets and caves and gray areas. And I realized that there was a black hole to illuminate. A black hole that is perhaps more frightening than others, to which it is difficult to give a voice: drug addiction in pregnancy ».
And are these children always unwanted?
“Children are collateral problems. They arrive without being searched, in family contexts in which both parents often use substances, in which conception occurred as a result of violence or an unprotected relationship in total unconsciousness. The discovery of motherhood, therefore, can have an explosive effect. In some cases in a positive sense in others negative: sometimes it can be “used” as an opportunity to try to stop, at least initially, in other cases as a further push towards the abyss. Whoever pays the highest price will always be the newly conceived child ».
What feelings do mothers have towards these children?
«When they discover that they are pregnant, rejection, aversion, hatred, fear, despair, but also feelings of” love “, always filtered by the use of substances. Let me explain: the drug, in addition to affecting the body of those who use it, has as its immediate effect the cancellation of emotions, certainly of the positive ones, and the strengthening of the negative ones. Those who take drugs feel nothing but the need to silence any feelings, which is why those who make this choice are also willing to steal at home, to hurt their parents or siblings in order to get a few euros. In such a context, a child is just a problem ».
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