This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, Reveal and Mother Jones .
Susan Horton had been a stay-at-home mom for almost 20 years, and now — pregnant with her fifth child — she felt a hard-won confidence in herself as a mother. Then she ate a salad from Costco. It was her final meal before going to Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa, in northern California, to give birth in August 2022.
It had been an exhausting pregnancy. Her family had just moved houses, and Horton was still breastfeeding her toddler. Because of her teenage son’s heart condition, she remained wary of COVID-19 and avoided crowded places, even doctor’s offices.
Now, already experiencing the clawing pangs of contractions, she pulled out a frozen pizza and a salad with creamy everything dressing, savoring the hush that fell over the house, the satisfying crunch of the poppy seeds as she ate. Horton didn’t realize that she would be drug tested before her child’s birth. Or that the poppy seeds in her salad could trigger a positive result on a urine drug screen, the quick test that hospitals often use to check pregnant patients for illicit drugs.
Many common foods and medications — from antacids to blood pressure and cold medicines — can prompt erroneous results. The morning after Horton delivered her daughter, a nurse told her she had tested positive for opiates. Horton was shocked.
She hadn�.