LEWISBURG, W.Va. (WVVA)-- Greenbrier Valley Medical Center recently received over $90,000 in grant money to fund a new project that helps pregnant women who are abusing drugs.
The project, according to GVMC's Women's Health Educator Molly McMillion, will provide treatment and therapy to women who need to kick addictions. The goal is to get them off the drugs while the baby is developing so it can be delivered safely.
"Babies born from mothers who are addicted to drugs are extremely at risk for health complications," said McMillion. "Out of every 1 in 5 babies born in West Virginia, according to a study, mom was using [drugs] in some way while pregnant," she added.
"The whole goal is to have healthier babies," said McMillion. She thinks this program will help the people of Greenbrier County who were unable to find help or support get what they need.
"A lot of women do want help, but getting that help has been hard. So this is another avenue for that to happen," she said.
This grant program will be different than others in the state, McMillion said, because the medical center "will typically not put them on other substances to get them clean." The program at GVMC will focus more on therapy, mentoring, and other supportive methods to help the clean lifestyle stick.
Sheriff James Childers told WVVA drug arrests were on the rise so far this year. "It's the biggest problem we have here," he said, "And it seems like it's more rampant than ever."
20-year-old Lindsey Boone was arrested for drugs, and she said she was using them before, during, and after the birth of her daughter Bella. "They ruled my life," she said. "I couldn't get out of bed unless I was high."
She says that now she is clean, she looks back on her addicted life and sees how the drugs came between she and Bella. "I almost lost my child," she said.
Bella was born with a condition that, although was treatable through surgery, still haunts Boone. "It was because I was addicted to opiates," she said. "I know it was my fault."
Boone is thankful for the life she has now, and is more connected to Bella than ever. "She's my best friend," she said. "I got that relationship back... now I have this life I wouldn't give it up for anything." She says none of it would be possible, and she would not be the kind of parent she can now be fore Bella, if she were still using drugs.
McMillion hopes this program will prevent the kind of birth complications Lindsey and Bella experienced, and change addicted women's lifestyles. "[It] is designed to look at how do you live, how do you cope in other ways without substance abuse," she said.
