Imagine you’re going to have a baby. You have made plans — who will be there, how you expect it to go, what you’ll need to get the infant home. Now imagine the baby is born. You’re in your hospital bed, bonding with your newborn, when a doctor walks in and tells you that you have tested positive for drugs. But you know that’s wrong.
Hospitals across the country routinely drug test people coming in to give birth, using pee-in-a-cup tests that are notoriously imprecise. People who have eaten poppy seed bagels or taken over-the-counter heartburn or cold medications can test positive for meth or opiates.
The Marshall Project’s reporter Shoshana Walter, in collaboration with Reveal, investigated how hospitals nationwide are reporting parents to child welfare services over inaccurate drug test results. She digs into the cases of women who were separated from their babies after a false positive result triggered a cascade of events they could not control.
Listen to the Reveal episode above — and read our story
How to work with us
If you are a journalist or researcher interested in investigating the consequences of hospital drug testing at childbirth, we’ve designed a reporting toolkit with free data visualizations, a FOIA template, advice on finding impacted sources, and an interactive tool to look up the policies and data in your state. We’re also working on identifying sources for these stories. If you’re interested in learning more about this effort, please email us at investigatethis@themarshallproject.org.