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MAT Offered for Pregnant Women with Opioid Use Disorder

Release Date: 03/25/2019

Pregnancy and the postpartum period are especially vulnerable times for women with an opioid use disorder. Recent research shows that the number of pregnant women who have an opioid use disorder related to prescription pain relievers or heroin has increased in recent years. Without appropriate treatment, these mothers may be at risk of relapse or increasing use of illicit substances. This can have long-term, negative effects on the relationship between mother and baby.

Women & Infants Hospital, a Care New England hospital, has created Moms MATTER (Medication Assisted Treatment to Enhance Recovery). Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) in pregnancy has been shown to improve birth outcomes among women who have substance use disorders and are pregnant. MAT has proved to be clinically effective and to significantly reduce the need for inpatient detoxification services for these individuals. MAT provides a more comprehensive, individually tailored program of medication and behavioral therapy. MAT also includes support services that address the needs of most patients.

“The ultimate goal of medication assisted treatment is full recovery, including the ability to live a self-directed life,” said Anupriya Gogne, MD, director of Moms MATTER, psychiatrist in Women & Infants Center for Women’s Behavioral Health, and a member of the Care New England Medical Group. “This unique model of care provides a safe place for pregnant and breastfeeding women with an opioid use disorder to seek compassionate and non-judgmental care in an office-based setting.”

MAT has been shown to improve patient survival, increase retention in treatment, decrease illicit opiate use and other criminal activity among people with substance use disorders, increase patients’ ability to gain and maintain employment, and improve birth outcomes among women who have substance use disorders and are pregnant.

Moms MATTER services include treatment of acute withdrawal for inpatients at Women & Infants Hospital, medication assisted treatment with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, assistance in caring for babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in collaboration with pediatricians at Women & Infants Hospital, and pain management for opioid-dependent women as an inpatient at Women & Infants Hospital.

In addition to Dr. Gogne, members of the Moms MATTER team include Erica Hardy, MD, Women’s Infectious Disease Consult Service and Center for Obstetric and Consultative Medicine; Neha Hudepohl, MD, Center for Women’s Behavioral Health; Jessica Pineda, MD, Center for Primary Care and Center for Women’s Behavioral Health; Adam Czynski, MD, Department of Pediatrics; Matthew Esposito, MD, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine; and case manager Alpha Lafrancois, LCDP, Center for Women’s Behavioral Health.

Patients are seen on Thursdays between 12 noon and 4 p.m. at Women & Infants’ Center for Obstetric and Consultative Medicine, 100 Dudley Street, Third Floor, Providence, RI. For information, call (401) 430-2700.

 

About Women & Infants Hospital 

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 9th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital, in 2009 Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s first mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.