Lily’s Place Offers Love, Treatment for Drug-Addicted Newborns

From The Charleston Gazette:

“Four years ago, Mary Brown held a drug-addicted infant in her arms for the first time while volunteering at Cabell Huntington Hospital. Afterward, she asked herself what she was doing with her life and decided to devote herself to a mission: helping newborns who are addicted to drugs.

On Saturday, Brown hosted community members at Lily’s Place, a pediatric drug-addiction recovery center that she created in Huntington.

…She started out working just three hours a week but quickly began working four- or six-hour shifts, several days a week. Musser said she noticed there was always something more to do and could not turn away.

“You just look in there and you see hope in all of those rooms. I can already envision all of the babies,” Musser said. “I’m thrilled to death we have it but hate that we have the need.”

A 2009 study conducted in eight Mountain State hospitals by the West Virginia Perinatal Partnership found that 19 percent of babies were exposed to drugs or alcohol while in the womb.” Read the full story »

For more information about our efforts to reduce substance abuse during pregnancy, visit our Substance Use During Pregnancy page.