“It’s the cry — so different from other infants. The cry will pierce your soul because it tells you how much pain these babies are in.” Those are the calm yet impassioned words of Sheri Smith, RN, nursing director for critical care services at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH). In the past five years she has seen more newborns than ever before come into the world dependent on drugs — specifically opioids like Suboxone that are used for pain management or addiction recovery. Young mothers take the drug during pregnancy, often with a prescription, not understanding that they are transmitting the drug to their unborn child. “During pregnancy, the baby’s brain is being bathed in opioids,” Smith says. “When the […]
