SPRINGFIELD -- Baystate Children's Hospital tells families and especially moms whose newborns suffer symptoms of opioid withdrawal:
"You are the most important person in your baby's recovery."
And since January 2017, Baystate Children's Hospital, part of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, has backed that up that statement by providing its Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Rooming-In program. It's four hospital rooms where recovering babies, mothers and family live 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Mother and baby get the medical treatment they need to beat opioids like heroin while cuddling and bonding like a new family is supposed to, Baystate officials explained Tuesday.
Funded with a $250,000 grant from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, Baystate's rooming-in program has shortened average hospital stays for drug-dependent newborns from 19 days in the neonatal intensive care unit to 13.4 days in rooming-in, said Karen Ricci, clinical research coordinator in newborn medicine.
What's more, babies in the rooming-in program need less medication and are more likely to breast feed, Ricci said. The positive outcomes add up to a savings, per baby, of $53,000. It costs $67,0000 to keep a baby in the NICU and just more than $14,000 for rooming-in, Ricci said.
"It's tender loving care, right?" said Dr. Rachana Singh, medical director of the ICU nurseries. "Who is better to take care of these babies but their mothers? It's better if the mothers can be there with them 24/7. They can sleep in the same room with their babies."
In the neonatal intensive care unit, babies have volunteer cuddlers who hold them. But its not the same as skin-to-skin contact.
Singh said while rooming in, the mothers learn to care for their babies just as they would if they were able to take their children home.
"Of course he is crying. Pick him up and hold him. He'll settle down," Singh said. "If he's alone in a cradle he will scream his head off."
Singh and her colleagues explained the program, which is unique in Massachusetts to Baystate, to reporters, visiting staff from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, and state Sen. James Welch, D-West Springfield, and state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, D-Springfield.
To qualify, mothers must be in treatment for their opioid use and not be using illicit street drugs. They are on medications, like methadone, to help them recover.
They must remain with their babies all the time except if they need to leave the room or hospital for treatment.
Mothers provide routine care, like diapering and bathing, just as they would at home. Baystate tells mothers to hold their babies with skin-to-skin contact as much as possible.
Rooming-in is not an option for babies in state custody.
The rooming-in hospital rooms are kept dark and quiet to soothe the babies. That's unlike the neonatal intensive care unit or even nurseries where lights are bright, people come and go and machines beep incessantly.
Singh said the prognosis for the babies is good. They can develop well physically and intellectually. But they are flagged for special intervention and education services up until about age 2.
Singh said Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield does something similar, but not exactly like what Springfield does.
The grant came from a $3 million pool of state grant money, said David Seitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission.
Singh said rooming-in is now a part of Baystate's regular treatment services and is no longer a pilot program. This means it will continue, funded by Baystate, after the grant money runs out.
The four rooms are not always filled, Ricci said. Because Baystate doesn't know how many families will need the service at a given time, it is hard to staff the program or do much planning.