A baby’s struggle to overcome her mother’s addiction

she's going to be able to sense that you're here and she knows you're her mom and so that's definitely the best thing for her is for you to be involved and be here as much as possible I pretty much used the whole pregnancy I was scared to death to go to the hospital because I knew what was gonna happen and I had to be responsible for my actions and actually stop using and try to get help just by the time I got in there I was about thirty weeks along and the baby basically was formed completely formed and I was terrified that what if something's wrong with her what if she's deformed she has a mental problem I knew she was going to have withdrawal [Music] [Music] who would like to go next I'll go mine says my biggest regret is definitely putting my kids on the back burner and I'm thinking that everything was going to be okay and that nobody would notice and they wouldn't notice or it wouldn't affect them but now obviously it's affected them the most you don't want to be that person that goes in and says hey I have a problem and I'm pregnant and I've been using drugs because there's a mother you're supposed to protect your child no matter what my eight-year-old doesn't have his mommy and he's never had his dad cambree of course she was born addicted to subutex and losing money and he just turned 2 and his daddy passed away so literally I've took everything that is important to them and at the age that they are away from I was using marijuana and heroin and no one knew it my family I hid it from them for the longest time that's the most longest I've been clean in a really long time it wasn't until I lost my job I lost my car and that I had to move in with them my parents and that's when they found out about my addiction yeah they're with my dad and she raised me and now they have custody well temporary guardianship of my eight and two-year-old and I really desperately want that back and so that's part of why I'm here was to try to make that foster parents want their kids back I get it as parents we feel that no one else to raise our kids better than what we can all right but rushing and cause more damage than what you are ready for a lot of trauma thoughts but they'll always love their mama and so we get this false illusion that we need to strive for the big goal when and then we don't celebrate the little ones walking through this door choosing recover now having a healthy baby those are all things that should be celebrated and don't get discouraged because you're not at your end going yet just keep taking these steps why don't you put in one foot today who didn't one know because the babies are not on oscillator I want to see you can't just wait two days the babies on the oscillator things change neonatal withdrawal syndrome or abstinence syndrome is occurs when a baby has been exposed to mostly an opioid in utero during gestation and then it's abruptly removed once the placenta is removed over the cord is caught and so all of a sudden you get withdrawal now the reason for that is during the period of time that the baby is being subjected to a substance this substance heroin or subutex or some sort of opioid the receptors are blocked and within a couple days the baby may with exhibit symptoms of withdrawal we could have continued the morphine here in this hospital we tend to use methadone just because that's the drug we use so can we start to wean this baby she's been on he's been on that this particular dose for three days three or four days in the gastrointestinal tract for instance you may have vomiting and diarrhea they're not tolerating the feeding there may be sweating profusely some of them even look like they're having seizure activity because any little stimulus will cause them to go into a frantic state of over activity there is a very difficult to console these babies in terms of long term effects no one really knows he is eating and he's sleeping and he's in front and he's consolable so that's the goal when you're treating a baby with neonatal abstinence syndrome morning I'll show you off if you understand that addiction is a disease process and not condemned these people with you know all of the stigma that's associated with use of drugs then perhaps you might get these people back the people who are using substances you know to to comply with the rehabilitation requests and if you can get those people to comply with that then I think we have a chance of preventing the syndrome later on there are so many women out there who are scared to come and get hope because you know what their babies taken they don't want to be looked at as you know a junkie or a drug addict that doesn't deserve treatment or help or even happiness if you want to you could you may help you swaddle her yes and we do deserve our children so we're people too we might have made a mistake but we can definitely learn from that and one of better ourselves yes now I'm just really happy that there are programs that have been made because of because of this and that's where it's really exciting that we have a specialized unit now where we can take the baby out of the NICU environment bring them on a unit which is baby steps where it's you know quiet hopefully a home more home-like environment where the family can be comfortable and we can provide them the support that they need to learn about their baby baby steps has eight beds we have the capability in four of those rooms to allow a primary caregiver hopefully his mom staying 24 hours a day and we're just trying to tear down the walls that might be blocking her toward recovery so if it's a snack or you know maybe she needs some clothing or additional resources in her community or transportation you know we are just kind of including all of these different pieces to help her be successful in her path to recovery because she needs to be the best mom that she can be for her baby this is the one that came with the car seat like what in the heck how's that gonna support her head so we took it out and we have this one over here it doesn't quite match but are those safe if it weren't for baby steps and presidency connections I wouldn't be able to have my daughter right now and I definitely probably would not be clean or even trying but it gives me hope they're just suggesting the straps and all that jazz are okay so of course I look forward to it more than anything in the world just to be able to take her home you she was here further withdraw just to be able to take your baby in her own room and rock them and basically take complete ownership and do it all on your own that's what I'm really looking forward to and just you know get to enjoy her with her with her father and just get to look her over and you know count all the fingers and toes and just just I'm looking forward to all that right yes right okay that was easy I didn't become an addict overnight and I didn't lose my children overnight so I need to work hard and do what I'm supposed to do and step up and grow up and realize that I can't stomp my feet and have my way anymore and that you have to try hard to get things that you want it's a baby and you need to surround yourself around people that you want what they have so if I can continue to surround myself around addicts and people that are risking their lives every day for a temporary had that you feel even worse when it leaves were surrounding myself about people who have a house a home a vehicle a job their children like most people call that boring but I would rather have boring every day than to live this life of a drug addict you're glad to be home yeah it was really nice at the hospital but it's good to be home

Channel: Washington Post

Views: 186,391

Keywords: suboxone, methadone, disease, trump, united states, government, politics, opioid epidemic, health, health care, healthcare, parenting, motherhood, pregnancy, recovery, drugs, heroin, west virginia, opioids, Washington Post Video, News, WaPo Video, Washington Post YouTube, The Washington Post, a:national, t:Original, s:National

Id: fgSLEakjlAs

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 18 2019