Mississippi providers push care over punishment to reduce maternal overdose deaths
More than 100 Mississippi health care providers gathered Wednesday in Ridgeland to discuss ways to better support pregnant and postpartum people with substance use disorders, organizers and speakers told Mississippi Today.
The conference, organized by the Mississippi Public Health Institute and CHAMP4Moms at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, emphasized rehabilitation and keeping mothers with their infants instead of punitive responses, Mississippi Today reported. Speakers said overdose has become a leading and rapidly increasing cause of maternal death in Mississippi, and that the state is one of 16 where people have been arrested for reasons related to pregnancy, often in cases tied to substance use.
Speakers criticized routine drug testing and custody separations. Dr. Mishka Terplan, an OB-GYN board certified in addiction medicine who helped develop federal guidelines for treating opioid use in pregnancy, told Mississippi Today that testing is often done for moral reasons rather than clinical ones and that positive tests can lead to separation of mother and infant. “We have this assumption that somehow the best way for someone to achieve recovery is to do it separated from their child,” Terplan said.
Personal stories underlined the speakers’ concerns. Joanne Shedd told Mississippi Today that her newborn was taken from her in 2015 after hospital staff found methamphetamine use. Shedd said she later enrolled at Fairland, an addiction treatment center in Tutwiler, and was reunited with her son a month after arriving. She called the nurses’ kindness a key motivation in her recovery.
Conference speakers also urged better mental health care and less stigma. Utsav Nandi, associate director of research at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine, contrasted responses to medical and mental health emergencies and said, “We can do better,” according to Mississippi Today. The University of Mississippi Medical Center launched a CHAMP4Moms phone line in 2023 to give providers real-time guidance on screening and treating pregnant and postpartum patients with mental health and substance use needs, Mississippi Today reported. Brenda Foster, lead nurse navigator for the state health department’s opioid and substance use programs, told the conference that keeping families together can improve outcomes and reduce harm.
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