Babies born on drugs to Somerset moms ranks second highest in Pa.
The number of babies born to Somerset County moms who were using drugs was the second highest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and four times the statewide average, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, an independent state agency based in Harrisburg. Babies born to Somerset County moms in 2025…
The number of babies born to Somerset County moms who were using drugs was the second highest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and four times the statewide average, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, an independent state agency based in Harrisburg.
Babies born to Somerset County moms in 2025 who were treated for drug withdrawal symptoms, called neonatal abstinence syndrome, was 22.3 per 1,000 births, which compared to the statewide average of 5.7 cases per 1,000 births. Moms from nearby Fayette County had Pennsylvania’s highest rate of neonatal abstinence syndrome at 29.2 per 1,000 births.
The total number of births to moms living in Somerset County who were using drugs at the time of delivery in 2025 was 11; in Fayette County, it was 22 and 661 statewide. The use of a per 1,000 figure makes it easier to convert a raw number into a rate that allows meaningful comparisons among varying affected birthrates in Pennsylvania counties.
Babies born in withdrawal from opioids can exhibit tremors, irritability, difficulty sleeping and inconsolable crying and often require hospital stays that are longer than other newborns. A 2017 PHC4 report found that NAS babies were hospitalized an average 17.1 days compared to 3.5 days for other babies.
The report only counted newborns experiencing symptoms of drug withdrawal, not the total number of babies exposed to opioids in the womb.
Also, the report did not distinguish between moms using illegal drugs such as fentanyl or heroin or Food & Drug Administration-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder, methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone, so the number of mothers in treatment for drug use was uncertain.
There are more than 10,000 women of childbearing age living in Somerset County, but there is no maternity hospital in the county. The closest hospital to deliver babies is Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, 29 miles from Somerset, which is part of a maternity desert in the state.
As of January, 23 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties – about one-third of the state – had no maternity hospital, which includes eight contiguous counties in the north-central part of the state, according to the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a Harrisburg legislative research agency of the state’s General Assembly.
Fayette County also had the highest rates in Pennsylvania for maternal stays involving opiates at 40.4 per 1,000 maternal hospitalizations, according to PHC4. That’s nearly four times the statewide rate of 10 per 1,000.
Somerset’s rate for maternal hospital stays involving opiates was not reported by PHC4.