The Wright Center News

The Wright Center for Community Health Shares Success of Healthy Moms Program in Rural Populations

The Wright Center for Community Health’s Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence and Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support program (Healthy MOMS) was the focus of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) Data Learning Collaborative webinarsession in June.

RCORP, supported through HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, is a multi-year initiative that addresses barriers to treatment for substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder. Overall, it works toward the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s goal of ending the opioid epidemic. 

Joseph Boino, project manager of the Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence, made the lead presentation during the “Storytelling with Data” session. It focused on the challenges and successes of breastfeeding and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) rates in The Wright Center’s Healthy MOMS program. Boino, along with Maria Kolcharno, director of addiction services, and Meaghan Ruddy, senior vice president of academic affairs, enterprise assessment and advancement, and chief research and development officer, outlined how The Wright Center for Community Health has worked to spotlight the program’s successes in rural communities in Northeast Pennsylvania.

The Healthy MOMS program began in 2017 and has served more than 300 mothers and celebrated more than 184 infant births over eight Northeast Pennsylvania counties, including rural Wayne and Susquehanna. The program currently serves 142 active participants. Sixty-two percent of the Healthy MOMS participants with infants are breastfeeding, which is higher than the national average of 58% six months after birth.

“Our team realizes that healthy babies begin with healthy moms and that being healthy means attending to all of your health, financial, legal and personal needs,” Boino said. “Even in ideal circumstances, raising a child takes a village. The complex struggles surrounding opioid and substance use addiction can make pregnancy even more challenging.”

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome is a group of conditions caused when a baby withdraws from opioids and other drugs that are introduced in the womb before birth. Most babies with NAS receive treatment in the hospital after birth. NAS may lead to long-term health and developmental problems, including hearing and vision problems and problems with learning and behavior.

“Many of the mothers and providers we work with are worried about breastfeeding while on medication-assisted treatment (MAT),” said Boino, explaining that MAT uses FDA-approved medicine and is supplemented by behavioral treatment and social support. “We use our own data to show them that it leads to better health outcomes.”

The average Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay for babies born with NAS in the Healthy MOMS program while the mother is breastfeeding is 12.69 days. The average length of stay for babies whose mothers are not breastfeeding is 17.03 days.

Through the Healthy MOMS program, mothers have access to behavioral health care and counseling, inclusive of supportive resources like case managers and certified recovery specialists and inclusion in peer support groups. Other services such as assistance with transportation to and from appointments, and, in some cases, temporary housing is offered through the program.