A baby is born in withdrawal every 18 minutes in the US, and most end up in foster care. At centers like Maddie’s Place, mothers stay with their infants – and leave together, in recovery
Eight months pregnant and in pain, Stephanie Rosell went to the Holy family hospital emergency room after an infection began spreading up her legs. Unemployed and homeless, estranged from her family, she lived in a shed she had built in a friend’s yard. She was also addicted to fentanyl.
As doctors treated her infection, she began to panic. Withdrawal was setting in. She leaned over the bed and vomited.
Stephanie finally broke down. “Listen, I gotta go. I have to go home and get high.”
She had used fentanyl before coming to the ER and had just enough time to get treated before she needed to go home to get high again. She thought she still had four weeks left to figure out how to get clean and have this baby.
