ONE baby a week on average was born across the Bradford district to mums with drug problems in 2015, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal.

And some of those 52 infants will have needed treatment, including being given morphine to wean them off the addiction they developed in the womb.

Figures obtained by the T&A using the Freedom of Information Act also show that the problem is at a three year high.

The data shows there were 40 addicts or former substance users who gave birth at Bradford Royal Infirmary last year, almost 25 per cent up on 2014 when there were 31 women whose pregnancies were complicated by substances from heroin to crack/cocaine and cannabis.

Figures compiled by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust do reveal that the number of mums giving birth with heroin and opioid problems had fallen to 12 in 2015 from a peak of 18 in 2013 but there is rising trend of cannabis use with eight women who gave birth at the BRI last year were or had been using the drug, compared to five or fewer during the two previous years.

The incidences of mums associated with crack/cocaine use in Bradford also increased slightly to six last year from five or fewer in both 2014 and 2013.

While there were no speed and ecstasy cases recorded in 2013, there were small numbers of cases both in 2014 and 2015 with the numbers given in both years being five or fewer.

Councillor Vanda Greenwood, chairman of the city's health and social care overview and scrutiny committee, said she was alarmed by the statistics and would be asking for the issue to be brought before it.

"This needs highlighting. I will be asking for it to come to scrutiny so we can look at the figures and see what services are being provided to help," Cllr Greenwood said.

"Anyone addicted to drugs is tragic but these babies are the most tragic of all."

Councillor Ralph Berry, executive member for health and social care, said while weaning any newborns off drugs was a "terribly distressing process with potentially life-long consequences", he believed Bradford was not seeing the numbers it had experienced in the past as a result of early-intervention work and studies happening as part of the Born in Bradford and Better Start Projects.

Cllr Berry said: "We are doing what we can to give the right help and support.

"There's a very strong movement in Bradford for early intervention and if that connects to getting out the message that taking drugs while pregnant has serious consequences then that has to be positive."

Bradford Council leader David Green, who is chairman of the district's health and wellbeing board, described the numbers as "thankfully, extremely low" when put in the context that about 6,000 babies are born in Bradford annually.

"What we have got to do is two-fold. The biggest priority is to ensure the health of those babies and there's a lot of good work going on in our hospitals and GPs to give those children the best possible start in life. The second thing we have to do is to stop people having addiction problems in the first place," he said.

Despite Bradford experiencing an increase in mums-to-be with addiction problems last year, Public Health funding was withdrawn in January for a one-stop maternity drug dependency clinic at the BRI because it was only serving a small and decreasing number of women in the district.

A spokesman for the Public Health substance misuse team that had commissioned it, said the district’s maternity services were able to assist mums-to-be with complex health needs and pregnant women could also access alcohol and drug treatment at any point through them.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s head of midwifery, Julie Walker, said its midwifery team was continuing to help as much as possible maintaining close working links with partner agencies to secure the best outcomes for that group of women and their babies.

Jon Royle, chief executive of one of those partner agencies, the Bridge Project, said pregnant drug users generally preferred to remain with the key worker they have built a trusting relationship with over time, rather than be referred to a specialist service.

He said: "In these cases we develop an intensive package of support in partnership with the district maternity services and where appropriate other health and social care agencies.

"With the right support these women can go on to have positive birth outcomes and with the added responsibility of parenthood, it can be a catalyst for women to make more positive decisions about their future use of harmful substances.”

Substance misuse statistics provided by Airedale NHS Foundation Trust identified its number of women giving birth with drug problems had halved from 24 in 2012/13 to 12 in 2014/15.

Mary Armitage, head of midwifery said: “We are pleased that the number of women with addictions giving birth at Airedale has reduced over the last few years.

"Our multi-disciplinary team provides a weekly drop in antenatal clinic in the community, which is supported by a specialist substance misuse liaison midwife and a voluntary drug and alcohol charity.

"This co-working offers well co-ordinated care for women using the service, both during pregnancy and after the birth, and individualised care plans are developed for each woman to ensure that they have appropriate support. Methadone is used as a substitute drug to help with reducing drug dependency.”

A spokesman for the Royal College of Midwives said: "We would want to make sure that services are there to support women whatever their needs are.

"Hospital trusts should provide those services but it's not just them. There needs to be wider social support that sees services and partner agencies communicating and working with each other across the board to help these women and their babies move forward when they go out into the big wide world."