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Core Topics => In the Media => Topic started by: clinton on November 29, 2015, 11:35:26 PM

Title: heroin babies
Post by: clinton on November 29, 2015, 11:35:26 PM
http://m.phillytrib.com/delaware-s-heroin-babies-starting-life-in-withdrawal/article_6281099c-51c5-562b-aac4-e3227aca36bd.html?mode=jqm

WILMINGTON, Del. — Katie Morgan is a heroin addict in recovery, a 29-year-old expecting a child in January.

She is part of a novel Delaware corrections program: Rather than serving time in prison for drug crimes and probation violations, Morgan is being held at a Newark group home — where she receives treatment for addiction, and can retain custody of her baby.

Methadone, the synthetic opioid Morgan takes to treat her heroin addiction, courses through her blood and the blood of the baby boy she’s carrying.

That means her newborn will likely spend his first weeks in the throes of opiate withdrawal — fighting neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, a condition that makes babies sleep-deprived, irritable, prone to tremors and vomiting, and difficult to feed.

The first sensations felt by her child will be similar to what heroin addicts feel when they quit cold turkey — wracked with pain, clawed by cravings.

“I can imagine what he’s going to go through when he comes out. I’ve been through withdrawal before,” Morgan said, sniffling. “I’m really upset with myself. I cry about it a lot because I did it to him. But he’s healthy, and the doctors say he’s going to be OK. So, it’s just a mistake I have to learn from.”

Morgan’s predicament is becoming far more common in America. Heroin use more than doubled in the last decade, and more and more babies are starting their lives in withdrawal. In 2004, 39 babies were discharged from a Delaware hospital after being treated for NAS. Last year, 300 babies received that diagnosis — nearly 3 out of every 100 born here.

While heroin and methadone are much less likely to affect a child later in life than other drugs expectant mothers are urged to avoid during pregnancy — such as alcohol, tobacco and cocaine — the quick rise in NAS cases in Delaware is an unsettling trend.

Christiana Hospital, which has seen more than twice as many NAS babies since 2010, announced plans Thursday for a $260 million overhaul of its women and children’s services at its Stanton campus. That expansion will create eight new floors and provide more room for its neonatal intensive care unit and a new nursery just for high-risk infants, such as those exposed to opioid drugs during pregnancy.

To medical staff accustomed to giving care in stressful conditions, infants with NAS can seem to be in agony. And caring for them is agonizing.

“What’s different about babies who are born to moms on opiates is it does cause fairly immediate withdrawal symptoms,” said Dr. David Paul, chief of pediatrics at Christiana Care. “Immediate means babies can show symptoms of withdrawal in the first hours after birth.”

Adds Nancy Forsyth, a neonatal nurse at Beebe Hospital in Lewes: “They may cry inconsolably. If you listen to their cry, it’s the cry of a baby that is in pain. It’s really distressing to see a baby going through this.”

Like other states around America, Delaware is struggling through the heroin pandemic. Overdose deaths have nearly tripled in the past decade — from 63 in 2004 to 185 in 2014.

High school nurses are being trained to give emergency doses of opiate-blocking drugs to prevent fatal overdoses, and police officers and emergency medical technicians carry the drug Narcan to save the lives of those who have overdosed.

In New Castle County, heroin seizures climbed 400 percent between 2012 and 2013, and emergency rooms are being inundated with overdose victims.

The signs of stress are visible statewide.

“The addiction epidemic is straining our public system beyond its capacity, with many people turned away for services when they are ready for treatment,” Gov. Jack Markell said in August.

Jim Martin, the leader of a Georgetown home for homeless men and a director of a Seaford addiction resource center, knows of parents in Seaford who routinely sweep heroin baggies off their sidewalks so their children don’t find them.

Heroin “has just exploded in our communities. It’s like a nuclear bomb went off and little heroin packets are going everywhere,” Martin said. “The experience I’m having dealing with heroin is folks seem to have so much more relapse. The drug just pulls you back, even if you’ve had some clean time. It’s just a terribly addictive drug.”

Three years into treatment for heroin addiction, Courtney Murphy, 31, brought her baby girl, Sophia, into the world on Oct. 27. Murphy had taken methadone and the baby showed signs of NAS in the hours after her birth, but made it through the rough patch and was discharged without much fuss six days later.

“Her tremors did scare me a little bit. I’d never experienced that,” Murphy said as she rocked Sophia, in her Nike booties and a pink-and-white outfit, to sleep in her New Castle apartment.

Murphy’s sons, ages 2 and 6, watched cartoons in a bedroom while, nearby, her 11-year-old daughter fussed with her hair. The church where Murphy attends addiction group therapy each week is just a few minutes’ walk down the street.

“It’s an everyday struggle,” she said of her recovery from addiction. She said it began at age 18 after a car crash when she was prescribed opiate painkillers. She’s been clean three years now.

“It’s made me become a better mom,” Murphy said. “My daughter’s 11 — she’ll be 12 soon — and I was actively using when she was younger” — taking street drugs in the child’s presence. “Now, I’ve been able to be there a lot. Not just physically. Mentally. Knowing what’s going on with my kids. I mean, it’s a big difference.

For Murphy, her new normal is this: Her oldest daughter catches a bus to a charter school at 5:45 a.m. A 2-year-old son who was also born when she was taking methadone, Duke, walks to her father’s house, where he’ll be cared for. Murphy’s husband, a painter, goes to his 12-hour shift at a Dover work site. Then, Murphy and Sophia make their way to the clinic where Murphy’s methadone treatments are administered.

“I take the baby with me to the clinic. It’s a job just to get there, back and forth every day,” she said. When she can, Murphy makes time for Narcotics Anonymous meetings and church meetings on addiction. She’s learned, in recovery, to plan a day ahead wherever she can — making lunches, laying out school clothes. It’s a choreography she never could have sustained when she was abusing heroin.

In high school, “I was a cheerleader. I hated, despised anyone who did drugs. I never thought this would be my outcome,” Murphy said as she got her children ready for a lunchtime walk to the corner deli. “But I’m making the best of the situation. So, that’s all that matters.” — (AP)
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: BamaPainGurl on November 30, 2015, 12:49:05 AM
Why aren't they administering comfort meds and tapering the babies? They make a point to say how terribly miserable these infants are but never ask the obvious question! Help them not suffer something that was out of their control!

Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: neighbor on November 30, 2015, 02:35:50 AM
when I read 'heroin babies' I had something entirely different in mind
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: Chip on November 30, 2015, 07:25:57 AM
me too ... I had weird thoughts of babies using !

I must clean my brain out ...  ::)
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: Z on November 30, 2015, 08:58:11 AM
Why aren't they administering comfort meds and tapering the babies? They make a point to say how terribly miserable these infants are but never ask the obvious question! Help them not suffer something that was out of their control!
They probably are.  Babies used to go on a morphine taper here.  The problem was that some of the symptoms on their chart is ambiguous.  They use the chart to calculate a score, and the score decides the degree of wd the baby is in.  The dose is changed purely on the basis of the score.  My oldest withdrew this way, and it was brutal.  6 weeks he was in the nicu in withdrawal.  It was torture.

Their new protocol is to encourage the mothers to breast feed, and comfort them with skin to skin contact.  Methadone passes through breast milk, and the children adapt rather quickly.  My youngest stayed for a weekend this way.

I think the article is irresponsible.  It doesn't explain that withdrawal during pregnancy can be fatal to a child.  I feel like they were putting a guilt trip on mothers who would do this, instead of laying out the benefits to mother and child.  Methadone during pregnancy is about making the best of a non ideal situation.

I hit the wrong button when I went to quote.  I didn't change your post bpg.  Need more coffee.
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: Pullmyhair. on November 30, 2015, 05:08:11 PM
Why aren't they administering comfort meds and tapering the babies? They make a point to say how terribly miserable these infants are but never ask the obvious question! Help them not suffer something that was out of their control!
They probably are.  Babies used to go on a morphine taper here.  The problem was that some of the symptoms on their chart is ambiguous.  They use the chart to calculate a score, and the score decides the degree of wd the baby is in.  The dose is changed purely on the basis of the score.  My oldest withdrew this way, and it was brutal.  6 weeks he was in the nicu in withdrawal.  It was torture.

Their new protocol is to encourage the mothers to breast feed, and comfort them with skin to skin contact.  Methadone passes through breast milk, and the children adapt rather quickly.  My youngest stayed for a weekend this way.

I think the article is irresponsible.  It doesn't explain that withdrawal during pregnancy can be fatal to a child.  I feel like they were putting a guilt trip on mothers who would do this, instead of laying out the benefits to mother and child.  Methadone during pregnancy is about making the best of a non ideal situation.

I hit the wrong button when I went to quote.  I didn't change your post bpg.  Need more coffee.

I completely agree (about this article being irresponsible/not well researched/incredibly biased). They make it seem like methadone is the problem when it's actually the solution. Obviously it'd be great if addiction didn't exist, but it does, and so you just have to make the best of the situation. Of course, this kind of article only makes it easier for those in charge of such things, who don't know anything about anything, to feel justified in taking these mothers' children away. There's no need to paint it such a negative light, it's obviously a shitty situation, why not focus on the positive steps these women are taking (i.e. getting on methadone) to ensure their children are born relatively healthy? I just don't get it (actually, I do, I just don't agree with it).
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: Pullmyhair. on November 30, 2015, 05:11:11 PM
me too ... I had weird thoughts of babies using !

I must clean my brain out ...  ::)

I don't think that's what Neighbor was refering to. I'm pretty sure there's a nsfw thread where someone posted pictures of their heroin babies.
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: neighbor on December 01, 2015, 12:13:23 AM
me too ... I had weird thoughts of babies using !

I must clean my brain out ...  ::)

I don't think that's what Neighbor was refering to. I'm pretty sure there's a nsfw thread where someone posted pictures of their heroin babies.

40mgofFritos makes one little shit thread and somehow im implicated in nefarious shit-talk.  How dare you. How could you even deign to dare?
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: Zoops on December 01, 2015, 03:13:09 PM
me too ... I had weird thoughts of babies using !

I must clean my brain out ...  ::)

I don't think that's what Neighbor was refering to. I'm pretty sure there's a nsfw thread where someone posted pictures of their heroin babies.

40mgofFritos makes one little shit thread and somehow im implicated in nefarious shit-talk.  How dare you. How could you even deign to dare?

Wow that's the first time I've ever seen anyone use the word "deign" on here. Look at the impressive vocab on Neighbor!
Title: Re: heroin babies
Post by: Elevated on December 02, 2015, 02:47:25 AM
Well, at least the baby won't remember it most likely.  It's probably hardest on the parents, having to listen to your brand new baby withdrawing and knowing it's because of a choice you made.  Ugh, not sure I could deal with that.
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