Did a bagel cost mom her baby?

[Liberal_in_LA]

Did a bagel cost mom her baby?


A woman in New Castle, Pa., says her newborn was taken away after she allegedly failed a drug test.

But she says she ate a poppy-seed bagel before she gave birth, and that's why her drug test was flagged. It showed opiates.

The ACLU is working on a civil lawsuit to file on the mom's behalf.

A Pennsylvania TV station says child welfare workers came to the woman's home three days after she gave birth and took the baby away. Mom and child have since been reunited.

A law in Pennsylvania allows hospitals to test moms' blood to protect newborns.

The ACLU says the hospital went too far.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hottopics/detail?entry_id=74579#ixzz12MduYslx

[sakabatou]

1. Yes, poppy seed bagels will sometimes give a false-positive

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. ...when giving birth...

:eyes:

[uncommon]

3. When a blood sample is taken.

Which often happens when a woman is admitted to the hospital to have a baby.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. ...and...?

[uncommon]

24. And your posts aren't making any sense.

[arbusto_baboso]

9. Yes, IF vast numbers of them are eaten just prior to the testing.

I pretty much guarantee this was no false positive.

[Control-Z]

20. How?

How can you guarantee it was not a false positive? Do you know the woman?

[arbusto_baboso]

22. The circumstances under which poppy seeds can show a false positive...

are pretty damned astronomical.

Dig deep into any of the anecdotes on this thread where people are claiming individuals were fired due to false positives from poppy seeds, and you will find a bunch of bullshit stories where people are just trying to conceal their drug use.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I know bus drivers who will never eat a poppy seed bagel. They are subject to random drug tests and

have been told that poppy seed bagels can lead to false positives.

actually they have a list of things that can give false positives and are told to avoid them.

[K8-EEE]

14. I know a cop that this happened to -- poppy seed muffins!

Doesn't need a vast quantity. 2 or 3 a week (they sold them at the concession stand at the civic center where he worked) we would get an orange/poppyseed muffin then he took his test & tested pos for opiates.

No big drama -- they asked about it, let him retake it and it was clean. Absolutely NOT a drug guy at all and he tested dirty!

[BrklynLiberal]

6. snopes says it is true. Poppy seeds can lead to false positives

http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/poppyseed.asp

as does this site:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1112/will-poppy-seed-bagels-cause-you-to-fail-a-drug-test

and this one..
http://www.poppies.org/faq/legal-issues/can-eating-a-poppy-seed-bagel-cause-you-to-fail-a-drug-test/

[beforeyoureyes]

12. It is definitely true. I know someone refused a job because of a false/positive poppy seed result

After searching for months....

[Iris]

7. How does testing a post-partum woman's blood help a newborn?

I don't get it. :shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

8. Even if a mother is doing drugs...

...it doesn't mean that her baby is an imminent danger & that her baby should be taken away without a trial.

[get the red out]

17. AGREE

It's like seeing how they can jerk people's babies away. Maybe they have a quota and the blood test is like a speed trap on the road? Sick stuff, it makes a woman at the total mercy of medical care and law enforcement without suspicion or warrant just because she is pregnant.

[beforeyoureyes]

10. Horrible. Absolutely horrible.

[Kolesar]

11. & sell the baby to cover the state budget deficit?

Ok, I made that up. But are not social workers supposed to work a *little bit* harder on cases than this?

[woodsprite]

13. I'm in DE and I had to be drug tested after I gave birth to my son

I fell and went into early labor, spent a week in the hospital on Mag sulfate to stop contractions. They sent me home on a Thursday night. Friday morning at 6:30am I went into labor and delivered at 9:30. It was my 2nd child, labor was fast, but the nurses said it was 'precipitous' and I needed to have drug testing done. My doc apologized, but said it was the hospital policy. It still pisses me off and my son is 10yo now.

[truebrit71]

15. I would have told the doc to fuck off...policy or no, you want a drug test get a fucking warrant..

...and a damned good lawyer...

No wonder you are still pissed off about it...how DARE they?

[Sherman A1]

16. Precisely

Hospital Policy is not the law.

[CBR]

23. In New Castle County? At Christiana? I am currently making a decision where to give birth.

I am wondering if St. Francis or The Birth Center would do the same?

Thanks for any input!

[sadbear]

18. They tested this on MythBusters

It's True.

[ThomasQED]

19. Is she named Elaine?

And how could this thread have gotten this far without someone asking that question??

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. 5% of all drug tests yield false positives

I know more than one person (and I know them well enough to know they are NOT drug users) who have had false positive drug tests.

Drug tests are not even close to infallible.