Changing attitudes and erasing stigmas on their parents may give children born into problem situations a chance at a better future, officials said during a training session at Meadowview Regional Medical Center, Tuesday.
At MRMC the SAFE Beginnings Program, an acronym for Stop Addiction in Families Early, is focused on helping pregnant mothers make healthy choices to give their children the best beginning possible, said Dr. Pamela Vaught, CEO of Comprehend, Inc.
Opening the session, Kristin Toy of the Department of Community Based Services, said the preference is to have women give birth to babies who are “clean,” and showed the group of medical, community assistance agencies and law enforcement personnel a poster designed by David Green of Comprehend, Inc.
The poster reminds parents of the A,B,C and D of caring for an infant, including alone, “A” for no other items in the crib; “B” for have the child sleep on their back; “C” for have the infant sleep in a crib; and “D” remove dangers, including toys and blankets from the crib, in addition to not using drugs or alcohol while in the care of a child.
Key speaker for the session was Dr. Ruth Ann Shepherd, director of Maternal and Child Health for the Kentucky Department for Public Health.
Shepherd elaborated on a variety of situations which could result in impairing a child for life, due to negative actions in a family situation.
Changing perceptions away from stigmatizing the mother, to encouraging the mother to follow a program designed to help her with abuse or addiction, while improving the situation her baby will come into are necessary to break the cycle, she said.
Drug related deaths are growing nationally, she said.
“In Kentucky, our numbers are going off the charts,” Shepherd said of overdose deaths in women in child bearing years. ”Overdoses have surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the biggest killer.”
According to statistics from University of Kentucky Hospital, nine percent of babies born there last year were exposed to drugs before they were born, she said.
Changes need to be made to help children born drug dependent go through withdrawals before being sent home with a mother who is already at high risk for problems, without an infant in the screaming-from-withdrawal phase of its life.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a (drug dependent) child spend four to seven days in the hospital before being released,” Shepherd said. “Hospitals should have a protocol for initiation and tapering off of medications.”
Mothers should not try to “cold turkey” off drugs, but follow a program to lessen any harm to the fetus when pregnant, she said.
“The most dangerous time for a newborn is not in the NICU, but once they leave the hospital and go back to the environment the mother was in,” Shepherd said, listing the factors any mother could be going into, amplified by possible less than optimum home life or drug abuse in the home.
Included in changes are the way neonatal situations are handled, so the mother will be more at ease and inclined to follow up with care begins when a mother visits a child in neonatal intensive care unit.
The mother is already embarrassed, suspicious, un-trusting and stressed, Shepherd said.
“NICU nurses are very protective of the children, and even whispering between nurses can me misinterpreted by the mother in a derogatory way,” Shepherd said, changing how the mother is treated can help give the child a better chance of having her nurture and care for the child in a better way.
“Changes in vocabulary, like not referring to a drug test as dirty or clean is an example,” Shepherd said, using an example of testing for diabetes and not using those terms, but using elevated or high sugar levels as less demeaning terms.
According to MRMC officials, many of the new attitudes are already in place.
Often the mother’s current situation can be traced to her childhood and possibly a generational cycle of problems in the household from alcoholic family members to violence and drug abuse, Shepherd said.
“The driving force behind 80 percent of women in these situations is a pattern and cycle of childhood abuse (or witnesses of abuse),” she said.
SAFE Beginnings at MRMC offers, at no cost to the mother, guidance to area prenatal care, mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, including an intensive out-patient program, healthy baby workshops, housing and basic needs, smoking cessation assistance, domestic violence services and peer support for mothers and children.
SAFE Beginnings is a collaboration between Buffalo Trace Health Department, Comprehend, Inc., Department of Community Based Services, Department 0f Probation and Parole, First steps and the Regional Prevention Center.
For information on SAFE Beginnings programs call Comprehend, Inc. at 606-564-4016.
Shepherd
