Program At Sanford Bemidji To Help Pregnant Women With Addiction

Expectant mothers seeking help with an addiction will soon have a new way to fight it.

“The type of person that would succeed in this program is somebody who is motivated to be in recovery and is committed to making this a part of their daily life,” said Sanford Bemidji Registered Nurse Ali Bruning.

The Sanford Bemidji Medication Assisted Therapy Clinic is designed to offer medication and chemical dependency treatment for pregnant women with opioid use.

“Medication management here at the clinic and then they’d be getting their chemical dependency treatment at Upper Mississippi  Mental Health Center,” said Bruning.

This is the first year for the program and 10-15 women can participate at a time. It’s free as long as certain requirements are met.

“Right now we’re only taking pregnant patients and every patient that comes through this program is also participating in the First Steps To Healthy Babies program, that’s case management and peer support,” said Bruning.

Serious drug use could have severe consequences for the mother and child.

“Women who are using those kind of things illicitly on the street have a much higher incidence of abruption where the placenta tears away from the side of the uterus can be a devastating injury,” said Dr. Joe Corser, MD at Sanford Bemidji.

Services at the clinic are covered through insurance and the length of treatment could be indefinite for each mother.