Tests aim to provide appropriate care to the newborn, who may suffer severe symptoms of withdraw from heroin, oxycodone, after birth.
A few weeks ago, police were called to the Kanakanak Hospital in Dillingham when a woman six months pregnant and a mother who had just given birth that day were caught smoking an oxycodone pill in the bathroom of the maternity room. The disturbing incident highlighted just how severe the use of opioids like heroin and oxycodone has become in Bristol Bay.
It also called attention to a problem known as neonatal abstinence syndrome. Now the hospital has made the testing for opioids routine for all pregnancies. KDLG’s Dave Bendinger has more.