Assessing the relationship between neonatal abstinence syndrome and birth defects in Delaware.

Background: Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a withdrawal syndrome in newborns and is frequently caused by maternal opioid use during pregnancy. Our study examines whether NAS is associated with birth defects in Delaware.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of linked Delaware birth certificate data (BCD), hospital discharge data (HDD), and birth defects registry (BDR) data to examine the association between NAS and birth defects for all hospital births to Delaware residents from 2010 to 2017.