Intro

• In the US, a child is born every minute – or more than 400,000 infants per year – prenatally exposed to Opioids and Alcohol. Exposure to these substances can have serious consequences for their health and development.

• Two out of three children under the age of one that are taken into state custody, are removed DUE to Drugs/Opioids and Alcohol abuse in the family. Many, many more (>10 times) are in kinship care (living with relatives/friends) and are not part of the foster care system.

• In 2020, a sampling of one million children entering foster care revealed that removals due to parental drug use increased 60% between 2007 and 2017, a three-times larger increase than any other reason for removal. A child enters foster care every two minutes in US.

 

The Problem

• An estimated 5.6 million women dependent on opioids and/or alcohol are having unintended pregnancies resulting in adverse birth outcomes as well as potential lifelong neurodevelopment impairments, leaving these children to carry the risks of requiring lifelong medical, mental, social and other special services.

• A sampling of one million entering foster care reveal that removals due to parental drug use increased 60% between 2007 and 2017, four-times larger than any other reason for removal. A child enters foster care every two minutes in the US.

• A study of foster care children removed from caregivers due to opioids and/or alcohol abuse in the home, found that years later these now adult children (26-29) were themselves addicted (33%) and about two-thirds had been incarcerated.

 

The Solution

• Empower Health USA and Partners - Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB) Program:

  • Reduces abortions

  • Reduces miscarriages, still births, pre-term/low-birth-weight births

  • Reduces the number of children impacted by prenatal substance exposure, which includes:

    • Physical damage

    • Behavioral health/attention damage from opioids/alcohol

    • Learning and control issues affecting our education system

    • Burdens in the foster care system

    • Long-term effect in the juvenile and later adult justice system

  • Saves billions of dollars in short-term and long-term costs SO NEEDED FOR OTHER MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES

• The goal of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies is to increase access to women’s healthcare services through the utilization of services to give a mother the ability choose to have a healthy baby and to improve healthy short and long-term outcomes for these women and their newborns.