TUCSON, Ariz. — A new program at Banner Medical Center is doing something to help new moms struggling with opioid addiction.
This is called the MOMs clinic. It helps soon-to-be mothers learn parenting skills to ease their baby's withdrawal symptoms from opioid exposure.
The clinic comes out of the Family Centered Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Program was established by Dr. M.Y. Bader and Lisa Grisham, neonatal nurse practitioner, to advance the care of babies born with NAS (neonatal abstinence syndrome).
Babies who have been exposed to opioids and some other medications/drugs in utero often suffer withdrawal symptoms in the several days after birth.
Withdrawal symptoms can include uncontrollable crying, tremors, vomiting, diarrhea, difficulties with sleep, and other autonomic disturbances.
One mother of three experienced this first-hand. Her name is Kellie Dow.
Dow was prescribed opioid painkillers after knee surgery in 2010 and became dependent upon them. She sought help and quit using opioids in 2016. This is when she found out she was pregnant with her third son Maverick.
"I was terrified because I've heard stories of babies going through withdrawal, and I thought to myself what did I do here," Dow said.
Dow is just one of the hundreds of mothers who have been helped through this program.
According to the Arizona Department of Health more than 250,000 opioid prescriptions have been reported in the last month.
From that, 1,265 reports of neonatal abstinence syndrome.
"The opioid epidemic is everywhere, and we wanted to know how can we make a difference," OBGYN social worker Joy Sudrin said.
Sudrin helps run the MOMs clinic and answers all the first phone calls that come in.
"From the medical model and the social work model, we needed to collaborate our teams and really start to create a clinical pathway that made it easier for patients to get care," Sudrin said.
Providing the mothers with a safe, non-judgmental environment is one of the key steps in treatment.
"They're there to help you," Dow said. "They're not there to judge. they're not looking at you any differently. They are absolutely there to help and all you have to do is ask."
In a typical situation, the newborn will stay in the hospital for about six weeks with no specialized withdrawal care.
However, this program has the newborn to stay in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit for only five to seven days.
"Instead of giving medication, in particular opioids to these babies we try to have the parents, in particular the mother as the treatment," the Medical Director of the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Program Dr. M.Y. Bader said.
The end result is a healthy and happy mom and baby.
"It's a scary thing at first, you don't know what the outcome is going to be, but when you look at him and see how happy he is. He's good to go," Dow said.
To learn more about the Family Centered Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Program and the MOMs Clinic, please call 520-694-6010.
