My baby is still in the hospital I NEED ADVICE

Author: finallyachance

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 10:39 am

I know I am in the suboxone forum and maybe I should be asking this in the Methadone forum on this site, but I am trying to arm myself with the information before I have a talk with a friend of mine who….is scared right now to even looking into this for herself. I will approach her with it all when I see she is in a responsive place. I may post it in the methadone forum too and I know that is double posting but I see only a few of the members post in the methadone forum so I need a bit more exposure, so please excuse the double post because I think it to be real important to get the most info as I can.
I met this young lady 24 years old in our methadone clinic two years ago. We both were new and had to drive an hour one way to go to the clinic everyday in the dead of winter where snow was such a problem so we began riding together and my husband could always take us when the snow was bad. I am 48 years old so I kind of have tucked her under my wing and mothered her since then and now I love her as if she were one of my own. So needless to say when she came to me and told me she was pregnant, I was overjoyed with excitement because she has polycystic fibroids disease and was told she probably would never have children and although she seemed to be ok with this I mourned for her because there is no better joy than motherhood and grandmother hood.
She takes 180 mgs of methadone and well we have seen many pregnant girls well into their pregnancy continue on methadone and then have their babies and continue on after that. I have never asked any questions about how they did on the methadone while pregnant. What happened when the baby was born? Is the baby is addicted? Etc….Is a Test administered when a baby is born showing methadone in baby’s system? Do they report it to DSS? Can they take her baby? Her counselor told her to come off methadone would be more stressful on her and the baby. It may take longer than 9 months to effectively taper/detox her from 180 mgs per day. In fact he told her they probably are going to have to increase her. Without any angry/rude comments please can anyone give any feedback on this subject? I want to gather as much info as I can. Should she consider changing to suboxone? Now her counselor has told her it is safe. That if the baby shows withdrawals they can be treated effectively. Of course he did not tell her if DSS was going to be an issue etc…