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Indiana mom meth baby death intoxication from breastfeeding

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Ashley Rans (left) and Nevaeh Hope Rans-Mason
Pictured, Indiana mother, Ashley Rans (left) and Nevaeh Hope Rans-Mason
Ashley Rans (left) and Nevaeh Hope Rans-Mason
Pictured, Indiana mother, Ashley Rans (left) and Nevaeh Hope Rans-Mason (right).

Ashlee Rans Indiana mother charged in the meth intoxication death of Nevaeh Hope Rans-Mason after breastfeeding the girl after recently using drugs. 

An Indiana mother has been arrested after investigators determined her baby’s death stemmed from her breastfeeding the child after using methamphetamine, according to new reports.

Ashlee Rochelle Rans‘ two-month old-infant, Nevaeh Hope Rans, was pronounced dead on December 19, 2019 when emergency services and police responded to a 911 call at the mother’s residence in Plymouth, court documents show.

Rans, 36, of Plymouth, initially told authorities that she put her newborn next to her in bed to breastfeed on Dec. 19, when both of them dozed off, FOX 23 reported.

Then, she claimed, she rolled onto her newborn as she slept, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by WNDU.

But investigators determined that wasn’t how the infant died.

On January 14, Rans was arrested and charged with ‘two counts of Neglect of a Dependent Resulting in Death,’ according to a press release from the Marshall County Prosecutor’s Office.

‘The cause and manner of death were determined by the forensic pathologist, and he determined the infant died of acute methamphetamine intoxication, and the manner of death was homicide,’ Marshall County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tami Napier told the station.

An autopsy, which took place a day after the infant’s death, showed both amphetamine and methamphetamine in the baby’s system.

Increasing trend of drug use by mother during pregnancy and during parenting:

At the scene, Rans and the child’s father, James Mason — who was also present at the time of the infant’s death — told police that the only kind of drug use they engaged in was marijuana use, the affidavit says.

Following the results of the autopsy, the mother admitted to using meth two days before her child’s death at a gas station bathroom. Pressed whether she had used ‘drugs’ during her pregnancy, the mother adamantly denied prosecutor’s claims. 

Rans told police that she fed her child with formula after using meth, but soon after continued breastfeeding after using meth, the affidavit says.

Highlighting the increased incidence of babies born addicted to drugs and parental drug use, The Recovery Village cited a 2015 New England Journal of Medicine feature showing that ‘the number of babies in America born addicted to drugs quadrupled since 2004.’

According to the review, every 25 minutes a newborn is born and goes through extreme withdrawal symptoms and that in 2013, 27 per every 1000 new babies were born addicted to narcotics.

Rans remains in custody at the Marshall County Jail, and could spend between 20 and 40 years behind bars if convicted.

Druggie mom avoids jail after baby dies from poisonous breast milk

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