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Center for Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development (MSACD)

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The Center for Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development (MSACD) is a statewide resource supported by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities with funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Prevention Block Grant.

If you are pregnant and using prescription painkillers or other prescription medications or know someone who is, please call the Center for Maternal Substance Abuse & Child Development at Emory University (www.emory.edu/MSACD) at 404-712-9829 or toll free 855-789-6222.

Prescription Drug Abuse and Your Pregnancy

“Prescription Drugs and Your Pregnancy” is a presentation, that was created by Dr. Karen Kuehn Howell, Ph.D. with Emory University, Dr. Gregg Raduka and John Bringuel of the Georgia Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Initiative, which has been designed to educate women of child bearing age and expectant mothers and their caretakers about the dangers of prescription drug use and abuse during pregnancy. In this presentation, the viewer will also hear about who to contact for help when needed.

Click Here to watch this presentation.

Where do I go for more information after the presentation?

You may contact John Bringuel, Project Director, Georgia Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Initiative at jbringuel@livedrugfree.org or call him at 404-223-2484.

Rural and Urban Differences in Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and Maternal Opioid Use, 2004 to 2013

Incidence rates for neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and maternal opioid use increased nearly 5-fold in the United States between 2000 and 2012.1 Previous studies suggest the incidence of NAS may be increasing rapidly in some rural states,2 in parallel with rising rural rates of other opioid use–related conditions including hepatitis C and overdose deaths.3,4 To our knowledge, no study has examined national trends in NAS and maternal opioid use among rural patients compared with their urban counterparts.

Click Here to read the full research report

Report finds skyrocketing rate of babies going through opiate withdrawal

"Thank you" diapers hang on the wall at Lily's Place in Huntington, West Virgnia, where infants are treated for withdrawal.

Huntington, West Virginia (CNN)The high-pitched, inconsolable screams of babies born dependent on heroin and other opiates echo across the otherwise quiet facility.

The babies also shake, vomit and suffer from diarrhea. But it is their shrill screams that caretakers find so heart-wrenching.

"When they are born, because they're no longer being exposed to an opiate, they're going to go through withdrawal. That is what we deal with. We deal with babies going through withdrawal," said Dr. Sean Loudin, the medical director of a neonatal therapeutic unit at Cabell Huntington Hospital and a separate facility called Lily's Place.

Click Here to read the full story