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MURRAY — Elizabeth Myers knows firsthand the challenges of addiction.
"I actually struggled with my substance use three out of four of my pregnancies," she said. "I never thought about what I was going through or what I was putting my baby through. It was really hard to just quit."
One in 10 women in Utah use a substance during pregnancy, including illicit and nonillicit drugs like alcohol and tobacco. Drug-induced death is the most common cause of pregnancy-related death in Utah.
"They have blinders on, and sometimes it's hard to see beyond their use to the big picture of what life could be like if they weren't just invested in using," said Dr. Terri Kurtz, an OB-GYN and addiction medicine physician with Intermountain Health. "There's risks to the mom. There's risks to her body and risk to the pregnancy, like early delivery or worse outcomes for the pregnancy, and there's certainly risks to the baby as well."
Kurtz said these expecting moms often face significant stigma and may hesitate to seek treatment.
"They're really worried about the repercussions of asking for help," she said. "They worry, 'Will I go to jail? Will I be incarcerated? Will I be committed? What's going to happen to my baby if I tell someone that I'm using substances during my pregnancy?'"
To help these women, the Peripartum Addiction Treatment and Healing program, launched in March 2024 at Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, recently expanded to treat patients in Davis County. The hope is to bring this care to other parts of the state.
The program is free for patients and was funded through the Utah's opioid litigation dollars, according to Krystal Richards, community health program manager, Peripartum Addiction Treatment and Healing at Intermountain Health.
Clinicians like Kurtz diagnose and help patients get started on medications to treat their substance use disorders.
"We talk to them about the risks to their baby and ways that we're going to address opioid withdrawal of their baby, and then we also have our care management team which addresses all the other psychosocial factors that make it difficult for these patients to get help and stay sober during pregnancy," Kurtz said.
The Peripartum Addiction Treatment and Healing program partnered with nonprofit Empowered, which is part of Roseman University. Peer recovery specialists from Empowered go with patients to appointments, help them navigate the court system or find housing, and provide basic needs for their baby.
Myers is one of those peer specialists — she's now able to help women who are where she used to be.
"I get to the part of that journey and that is something that I am truly grateful for," she said. "Being the mentor, being able to navigate with them to be able to be their own success…that's huge and important to me because I didn't have that."
"I've seen a number of phenomenal success stories," Kurtz said. "I've seen patients really turn their lives completely around from the time that they, you know, were using in pregnancy to becoming amazing moms postpartum."
Kurtz explained she met one patient who was using methamphetamine very regularly and very late into her pregnancy, who had "no desire to parent" and "no desire to get into treatment." But, Kurtz said, she kept coming to her appointments and working through the program — eventually entering a residential treatment facility.
"She's been telling me she's really motivated to be a mom," Kurtz said. "It's been amazing seeing the transformation of her from someone who is very apathetic, indifferent to recovery and parenting, to someone who feels really motivated to be a parent and to get sober for her child."
Myers emphasized the importance of non-judgmental care that gives hope.
"Sometimes it doesn't feel like you have a chance. We let them feel like there is a chance, that there is success, that their story matters and their story can be how they make of it," she said. "There is help."
For more information about the Peripartum Addiction Treatment and Healing prenatal care clinic and other substance use programs, call 801-387-4647 or visit the program's addiction treatment page at intermountainhealth.org. For social support services for moms at risk for substance use during pregnancy, visit empoweredmoms.org.
