
First Six Months with a Baby with Opioid Exposure
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
04/18/22
•44m
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Are you considering adopting or fostering a baby who was exposed to opioids prenatally? We talk with Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a faculty member in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Child and Family Health. Her research focuses on improving the outcomes and increasing resilience in children who have experienced trauma, including prenatal exposure.
In this episode, we cover:
- What drugs are included in the category of opioids?
- Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others.
- Methadone and suboxone?
- How does prenatal exposure to opioids affect a fetus?
- How can you tell if the baby is born dependent on opioids?
- What are the symptoms of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)?
- How common is testing of the newborn or mother?
- What impacts the severity of the withdrawal symptoms an infant might experience?
- timing of the mother’s most recent intake of opioid
- maternal metabolism
- placental metabolism
- infant metabolism and excretion
- maternal taking of other substances, including cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine, hypnotics sedatives, and/or barbiturates
- How is NAS treated in the hospital?
- What can parents expect at the hospital when a baby is born dependent or was exposed prenatally?
- What can parents expect when they first bring the baby home?
- How can parents help soothe a baby going through withdrawal?
- How can parents help a baby going through withdrawal with sucking?
- What can parents do to help their baby exposed to opioids sleep through the night?
- Any additional tips for dealing with and helping a baby who was exposed to opioids?
- Long term impacts.
- Does being born dependent predict the degree the child might be impacted?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode

Parenting Toolkit for Harder to Parent Kids
April 13, 2022
•58m
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Is your child "more"...more intense, more defiant, more everything and in general, just harder to parent? We talk with Dr. Chuck Geddes, the founder of Complex Trauma Resources where he developed the Complex Care and Intervention (CCI) program to support foster and adoptive children. He is the author of Children and Complex Trauma: A Roadmap for Healing and Recovery.
In this episode, we cover:
- What makes a child harder to parent?
- The importance of recognizing what we parents bring to the relationship.
- Difference between trauma and complex trauma.
- Tantrums, meltdowns, or hissy fits are a common part of child development, but some kids have them more than others and they are more intense. What factors contribute to some children being more susceptible to tantrums?
- At what age in normal child development are tantrums most common?
- How does trauma change the dynamic with tantrums?
- Techniques for preventing tantrums.
- Techniques for handling tantrums.
- Need for constant supervision
- Lying
- Being disrespectful
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode

A Panel of Birth Moms Talk About Adoption
April 27, 2022
•54m
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We talk with a panel of birth moms about their adoption experience. What is the adoption experience for birth mothers and what do they think of some of the controversies in adoption, such as pre-birth matching, adoptive parents at the hospital, adoptive mother breastfeeding, etc.
In this episode, we cover:
- Tell us what your child’s adoption looks like.
- What are your ideas on:
- Options counseling being provided by adoption agencies—is there a conflict of interest.
- Pre-birth matching
- Some have stated that an infant should go into temporary or foster care for a time (usually 1-2 months) between birth and placement as a revocation period.
- Fundraising for adoption
- Adoptive parent breastfeeding.
- What did you look for in adoptive parents?
- There is a lot of talk in adoption world about subtle and not so subtle forms of coercion that could influence a mom’s decision to place.
- Hopeful adoptive parents attend doctor appointments.
- Adoptive parents being present at the birth and at the hospital?
- How involved do you think adoptive parents should be at the hospital?
- Openness:
- How was openness described to you before the adoption.Does the reality of open adoption match what was promised.
- Benefit and limitations of post adoption contracts. (Did you understand open adoption wasn’t enforceable (may depend upon the state)?)
- Ethical adoption practices that expectant parents considering adoption should know about.
- Tips for birth parents and adoptive parents to look for in adoption agencies to make sure they are choosing an ethical agency as to how they treat expectant and birth parents.
- Importance of separate legal counsel for birth parents.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
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