“When you see the little babies, it really brings it home to you,” U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Oct. 26 after visiting a unit at Hoops Family Children’s Hospital that cares for babies born dependent on drugs.

Mothers who are dependent on drugs, a steadily increasing number, give birth to babies who also are dependent on drugs.

Last year, Cabell Huntington Hospital saw 420 babies born with exposure to at least one addictive substance, said Dr. Sean Loudin, a Hoops Hospital neonatologist and medical director at Lily’s Place, a recovery center for drug-addicted babies. That’s at least one or more every day, Loudin said. 

Capito said she had previously visited Lily’s Place, but until now had not had an opportunity to visit Hoops Hospital to see its efforts to treat addicted babies. 

“I’m really impressed by what I’ve seen,” she said. “Unfortunately these units are full.”

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a bipartisan measure enacted by Congress this year, included provisions to aid this drug epidemic’s youngest victims: babies born exposed to opioids during pregnancy. But more needs to be done, Capito said, indicating that as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee she will work to expand funding for innovative programs such as those at Hoops Hospital and Lily’s Place.

“I’ve been working with (U.S. Rep.) Evans Jenkins on this because he’s been front and center in the effort,” Capito said. Jenkins, R-W.Va., has been a long-time advocate for Lily’s Place.

“When you have resources that are not growing in the federal government and at the state level, you’ve got to really pinpoint your resources to where you’re most effective and where you have success,” Capito said. “You’ve got to be willing to cut certain programs off and initiate new ones. That’s why it was useful for me to see this today, to see the innovative approach that they’ve taken.”

Hoops Director Melanie Akers said the facility appreciates Capito’s support, even though her schedule made it difficult to visit. 

“Her staff has been here and we met with her in Washington,” Akers said. “It means a lot to us to have her here.”

Loudin explained that Hoops Hospital provides specialized care for newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a group of problems that occur in newborns exposed to addictive drugs, such as amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine and/or opiates/narcotics (heroin, methadone, codeine) while in the mother’s womb. These substances pass through the placenta to the baby during pregnancy, and the baby becomes addicted to them, along with the mother.

In 2015, Cabell Huntington treated 9 percent of its live births for NAS. The national figure, Loudin said, is 0.7 percent.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg” that is the community’s drug problem, Loudin said. The addicted infants, he explained, generally are born to mothers “who have no jobs, no education, no hope, none of the support system they need to fight addiction. So while we’re dealing with this, the problem is tremendously greater than just the babies. … That’s the bottom part of the iceberg.”