DRUGS, BUTTS, BOOZE . . . AND BABIES

A government survey suggests that more than 5 percent of the 4 million women who gave birth in 1992 used illegal drugs during pregnancy. The $3 million National Pregnancy and Health Survey, commissioned by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, also found that 20 percent of the mothers-to-be smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol while pregnant--and that smokers and drinkers were more likely to have used drugs too. Several other findings promise to be controversial: black mothers-to-be were more than twice as likely to have used illegal drugs as white or Hispanic women, while white women were far more likely to drink or smoke during pregnancy. The report was based on 2,613 women who delivered babies at 52 hospitals across the country.