CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Cheryl Bartlett, who heads Cape Cod Healthcare’s prevention efforts for the region’s substance abuse crisis; Dr. Jean Talbert and Dr. Sharon Daley discuss the issue of babies born addicted to opiates.
HYANNIS – Local healthcare workers offer a number of programs for babies born addicted to opiates or exposed to illegal substances in the womb.
Cheryl Barlett, who is leading substance abuse prevention efforts at Cape Cod Healthcare, along with Dr. Jean Talbert, an ob-gyn in Falmouth, and Dr. Sharon Daley, a pediatrician involved with Cape Cod Hospital’s Neo-Natal Abstinence Syndrome Program, gathered to discuss the issue.
Daley explained that of newborns exposed to substances like opiates while in the womb, some will have symptoms of withdrawal, which is known as neo-natal abstinence syndrome.
She said generally over half of babies born after exposure to opiates can have a wide range of symptoms.
In 2014, 46 babies at Cape Cod Hospital were born with neo-natal abstinence syndrome, according to Bartlett.
Cape Cod Healthcare’s two hospitals, Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital, handle about 1,200 to 1,240 births per year. Of those 5.8 percent of babies born at Cape Cod Hospital are substance exposed.
At Falmouth Hospital, 4.1 percent of the babies born annually are substance exposed.
Since 2003, the number of substance exposed babies born at Cape Cod and Falmouth hospitals has gone up 19 percent, according to Barlett.
The hospital and its affiliated doctors care for the babies born with issues after being exposed to drugs in the womb and babies born with neo-natal abstinence syndrome, known as NAS, are kept an additional five days in the hospital for care. The hospital also offers programs for the mothers of the babies, including support groups and individual counseling and referrals, to help get them into recovery programs.
Listen below to a discussion of the issue with Cheryl Bartlett, who is leading Cape Cod Healthcare’s response to the Cape’s substance abuse crisis, Dr. Jean Talbert, an ob-gyn with Cape Cod Obstetrics and Gynecology in Falmouth, and Dr. Sharon Daley of Seaside Pediatrics, who is involved with the Neo-Natal Abstinence Syndrome program at Cape Cod Hospital.
