Hospitals Need Volunteers To Cuddle Babies Born Addicted To Drugs And You Can Help
Time to cuddle all the babies.
Hospitals across the country are facing a heartbreaking side effect of the opioid crisis, and it is showing up in the tiniest patients. Babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, can spend weeks in the NICU shaking, crying, and struggling through withdrawal.
In some places, the numbers are especially alarming, and that has pushed communities to look for ways to help. One answer has been cuddle care programs, where volunteers step in to hold and soothe newborns whose parents may be unable to be there.
It is a simple kind of help, but for these babies, it can make a huge difference. Read on.
An infant born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) receives a bath in the neonatal intensive care unit at Niswonger Children's Hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee:
NBC News
In some communities, the rates of babies born with NAS are eight times higher than the national average, and it's got to stop.
In Tennessee, a group of attorneys general have banded together to sue the manufacturers of opioids.
That is how serious the crisis has become.
NBC News
If you're feeling helpless right now, you're not alone. Empathetic people everywhere are driven to do something for these babies, but we're in no position to sue drug manufacturers or administer morphine. Fret no further, friends! Cuddle Care programs are stepping in where there is a need. The medical staff in hospitals everywhere tending to babies born suffering from NAS are understandably busy, but babies born with NAS are not able to soothe themselves, and almost always, their parents are struggling with their own addiction and are physically (and legally, usually) unable to tend to their babies' needs for snuggles and comfort.
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Jane Cavanaugh, a nurse in Pennsylvania, watched the rising rates of babies born with NAS and felt compelled to do something, starting in her hometown. So at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, she got the ball rolling.
These babies going through withdrawal need to be held for extended periods. They need human touch. They need soothing. They need talking.
Cavanaugh's team of 25 volunteers is diverse. After completing extensive background checks and a four-hour training course on things like hand-washing and infection control, the volunteers spend three-hour shifts cuddling babies under the supervision of a nurse. They don't change diapers or feed the babies; they simply attend to the need for love and compassion.Addy Schultz, 72, embraces a newborn.
David Swanson / Philly.com
When he cramps up, I hold him harder and pat a little firmer. They don't like to be stroked or caressed.
It’s a different kind of dependency, but it echoes.
At Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC in Pittsburgh, Maribeth McLaughlin oversees cuddle volunteers.
Children's Hospital Foundation
She told Today.com:
[The program] is about swaddling them and giving them that comfort and safe, secure feeling.
...We can see the reduction of the medication and often in the length of stay.
Over the years, countless studies have emerged proving the positive impact of touch, skin-to-skin contact, and meeting an infant's need for closeness, as well as demonstrating the detrimental effects of neglecting these aspects. Research conducted by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio emphasizes the importance of human touch on a baby’s brain development.
Knowing what we know about the importance of touch on newborn babies, especially those with NAS, we are relieved that these cuddle programs exist.
Southlake Regional Health Center
Especially since 2000, NAS rates have increased in the U.S. With numbers like these climbing and so many wanting to help, it seems like cuddle programs are the perfect missing puzzle piece while lawmakers and politicians battle the problem head-on.
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Want another addiction twist? Read how Billy Idol says crack cocaine helped him beat heroin.
