‘Junkie’ babies born at Ulster hospitals are being treated for heroin withdrawal. The infants, born to one or two heroin-user parents, are requiring treatment to overcome addiction to heroin and other synthetic heroin substitutes.

They are spending up to a week being treated with sedatives in a bid to wean them off the drugs their mothers have used during pregnancy.

Official statistics show that the number of addict babies would be in single figures last year.

But a veteran anti-drugs campaigner who has spent more than a decade fighting the scourge of heroin has warned that the number is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sunday Life can reveal that, according to the latest figures supplied by the Department of Health, there were seven pregnant women among Northern Ireland’s registered drug addicts last year.

In the former Northern Health Board area — which includes Ulster’s heroin capital, Ballymena — Sunday Life understands that there have been 10 registered addicts who have been pregnant in the past two years, including three last year.

Research indicates that more than half of those will be born addicts.

However, veteran anti-drug campaigner Davy Warwick |predicts that the full scale of the problem may never be known.

And he describes those that have been picked up because their parents are registered addicts as the ‘lucky ones’.

But those whose parents never signed up to receive |benefits for their drugs |addictions may never know about their secret addiction until it’s too late.

“These are children with this timebomb ticking away inside them,” said Mr Warwick.

Mr Warwick, who has |dedicated years to trying to help young addicts beat heroin as the drug took hold in his hometown Ballymena, added: “When we were working with heroin addicts we would have been aware of maybe 10 to 12 couples who were using together.

“They used to say that their sexual appetite was nearly nil, but that wasn’t the case as they were having children together. It seems to have become almost acceptable in society, which is very dangerous.

“Even death by heroin overdose has seemed to become part of life, it seems to have become acceptable.

“But I wonder what |happened to those young people who I know had kids and both parents were heroin addicts.

“Do they face the same problems that their parents had? Will they grow up with that craving?

“An addict will ALWAYS have that craving, it’s in their system. And those children grow up with that same thing in their system.

“In cases where the child is still with the parents, they will know and can be on the lookout but if they are in care and have no contact then it could be that they have this inside them and they are completely unaware.

“A decade ago I knew of a dozen cases, and the situation hasn’t changed since then, it’s still going on.”

Those mothers that were the subject of a major scientific study at Antrim Area Hospital Maternity Unit were all subject to input from Social Services throughout their pregnancy, and following the birth of their children. The study also helped the hospital develop care guidelines for dealing with addicts during pregnancy and after they give birth.

But parents who are not registered addicts, but are still hooked on heroin and other drugs, may slip through the net. Mr Warwick added: “Statistics show there is the risk there.

“But what has to be remembered about statistics is that they are dealing with registered addicts — the young people brave enough to admit their problem and get on the register.

“But what about those who are not registered.

“The cases I mentioned that I knew about weren’t registered.

“We spoke up when we saw what a big problem there was.

“And we were shot down, people saying that we were not creating the right image and that we were overestimating the scale of the problem.”

Last month it emerged that a baby born addicted to |heroin England died at just 12 weeks after suffering 13 broken ribs in the care of foster parents.

Chelsey Essex, whose cause of death was listed as heart failure due to a stomach bug, spent her first five weeks in hospital showing the classic signs of heroin withdrawal.

The tot’s mum, Michaela Mullen, mothered a total of three junkie children.