Baton Rouge, Louisiana – According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a baby is born suffering from opioid withdrawal every 15 minutes.
But Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is among the first in the nation to try a new method of saving pregnant addicts.
The moment Courtney Saylor realized she was pregnant, her life changed. At the time, she was addicted to heroin, which put her health and her baby at risk.
"It had become such a way of life that I couldn't even get out of bed or do my daily activities of life without it in my system," Saylor said.
That's when she enrolled herself in the GRACE Program at Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge. Many hospitals provide medication-based treatment, but the GRACE Program provides participants an extra layer of accountability by assigning them a nurse and a social worker and connecting them with outside resources.
"We're finally understanding that addiction is a disease of the brain, and being able to relate that to actual disease, makes it easier for us to understand how to treat," said Kiona Hayes, GRACE Program case manager at Woman's Hospital.
Now, one year after launch, Woman's Hospital officials said they're seeing results.
While untreated substance use in pregnancy can lead to preterm birth and low birthweight, 93% of infants in the GRACE Program were born at term and almost 3/4 pounds heavier than babies of mothers with opioid-use disorder who didn’t participate.
"I mean that's why we do this," Hayes said.
Saylor stuck to the program without relapse and welcomed a perfectly healthy daughter on the Fourth of July.
"She's a little firecracker," Saylor said about her baby.
Saylor's daughter gave her a reason for recovery. She said the GRACE Program showed her the way.
The GRACE Program is one of a few of its kind in the U.S. Officials said they modeled themselves after a similar program in Cincinnati and they are working to become a model for other hospitals to treat pregnant women with opioid-use disorder.