Moms with drug problems get help..Ripped from the headlines of the Citizen Times..

Some moms get a hand in overcoming addiction
Unique residential program makes room for child care

Leslie Boyd • July 12, 2009 12:15 AM

 

ASHEVILLE — Ten months ago, nothing in Eleanor Gibbons’ life was certain.
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She was drinking heavily and her family was fed up with her. She landed at the Neal Dobbins Center in Black Mountain for detoxification, and found out she was pregnant. The staff there referred Gibbons to the Mary Benson House, a yearlong recovery program for pregnant and postpartum women and their children up to age 5.

Mary Benson House is an arm of Sisters of Mercy Services. It has room for seven women and their children, and a long waiting list. It is the only such treatment house in Western North Carolina.

The house is named for an Asheville woman who, in her own recovery from addiction, reached out to others, working with 12-step and other recovery groups. She died in 1994.

The house, a rambling old Victorian in Montford, needs work on its kitchen, and Sisters of Mercy is working to raise money for a complete renovation. An aspiring Eagle Scout took on the drainage work in the backyard and built a small playground.
This is ‘real work’

In the sitting room, Gibbons sat in a rocking chair feeding her 5-week-old daughter, Covey Grace. She is sober, looking for work as a certified nurse assistant and planning to go back to school for a degree in nursing.

“I have a degree in English literature,” Gibbons said. “But what that really means is that you have to go back to school for something more practical.”

Another thing..Moms don’t drink or smoke when you are pregnant…Hospitals and psych wards are filled with kids that didn’t develop right in the womb..Alcohol Fetal Syndrome and small oxygen deprived babies are a real problem..If you are doing any of these behaviors stop right now…You don’t want to sentence your child to a life of bad health , learning disabilities..or mental problems..It really can screw your kid up..no kidding..if you are thinking this won’t happen to you..you’re thinking is wrong..so stop… get help and quit…

your kids might end up like me, or worse, richy…

I’ve worked in the prisons and mental hospitals and saw the poor kids with problems…It’s infuriating to see…Once your brain is harmed..you got problems…Same thing with kids who take some street drug and ruin their life…That’s why I’m for prescribed recreational drugs..control the dosage and ensure the outcome..folks are gonna want to alter their consciousness with substances..why not make it safe..?

Meth babies on the rise..If you are a Meth mom or know one please get help…

Generation Of Meth Babies
Heartland Doctors And Programs Help Meth-Addict Moms Cope

  By Christine Lagorio

(CBS)  Deep in America’s heartland, hidden among the river towns and rolling farmland, lies a heartbreaking epidemic, CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports.

There is a generation of children being born to Methamphetamine-addicted mothers.

Meth babies now make up 80 percent of Doctor Rizwan Shah’s practice. Cobiella met one child who couldn’t swallow when he was born. Two years later, he still has to be fed through a tube.

His is an extreme case. The vast majority of meth babies look normal, but they may only sleep an hour a night. They can have tremors, muscle stiffness, and trouble gripping.

“Babies who are exposed to Methamphetamine are at risk for having a stroke before they are born, in the mom’s uterus,” said Shaw. “And that cannot be fixed.”

No one knows how much to blame meth alone, since most users also abuse alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.

“I prayed every day that she would be all right,” said mother Jamie Leach.

Leach was busted while six-months pregnant. She’d been using heavily — passing the drug on to her baby Justice. At five months old, the child appears healthy.

“It breaks my heart that I could have caused her some kind of damage that might not be detected,” Leach said. “I worry about it every day.”

But this is not a lost generation. Many of these meth-exposed babies can grow into healthy children — with the right treatment and therapy.

Bridge of Hope is a new treatment center where recovering moms stay for months at a time with their babies, learning techniques like infant massage to soothe stiffened muscles.

Paired with a support group, Moms Off Meth, the program seems to be working. All 12 Bridge of Hope graduates are sober, which is stunning, considering the relapse rate for meth is between 50 and 90 percent.

Shah sees new patients every day. Heartbreaking, yes, she says, but not hopeless.

“I can’t change what happened to this child before birth,” Shah said. “But I have the ability and the opportunity to change everything that happens to this child from now on.”

This is a chance for the tiniest victims of this hidden epidemic.

I drink because i have kids

i kid, i KID!

I drink because other people have kids..