New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2018, pp 34-40ff.
Usually I skip right to the NYT Sunday crossword puzzle, but an article in yesterday's magazine about babies born to addicted mothers caught my eye, because the mothers and doctors interviewed were mostly in RI.
Several moms were interviewed for this article, during their pregnancies and after giving birth. In all cases, the mother was addicted to drugs including heroin and pain killers like Percocet. The article is not comprehensive in terms of providing a lot of national, or even statewide, statistics on the use of drugs during pregnancy, but it provides a small window into the lives of several women and their experiences with trying to deal with an addiction that could potentially harm their unborn child. None of the mothers had planned their pregnancies - and certainly none planned to get hooked on strong drugs, but all (at least in this article) wanted to keep their babies and try to get treatments in the hope of producing a healthy child. The potential risk to newborns is that they might be born with an opioid withdrawal condition known as NAS or neonatal abstinence syndrome. The good thing is that NAS is treatable, and most babies do not require treatment for long although, as the article warns, long-term effects of NAS (if any) are not known.
All of the women in the article had found support in terms of hospital programs offering methadone or other withdrawal-type drug treatments for mothers as well as monitoring and care for newborns. Each of the women was also in a relationship with a husband or boyfriend. A few women had parents who were supportive. The other piece I'd like to have seen - particularly living in RI - was what kind of community support is available to encourage these young moms and their babies. The author shared a text message from one mom who wrote that "Too many people dont understand addiction & they are VERY judgmental. They assume all addicts are horrible human beings, im hoping you are able to open people's minds."
This article can be accessed online.
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