Editor’s note: This story is part of a Hampshire HOPE series about local efforts addressing the opioid epidemic.

Sitting in a rocking chair holding 3-month-old Avaree, Kellyann Kaiser participated in a Zoom interview earlier this month, disappearing occasionally to tend to her older children, Landon, 3, and Bailee, 2.

“Landon, what are you doing, babe?” she could be heard saying off screen.

Kaiser, who lives in Ware, agreed to be interviewed about her participation in the New Beginnings program for pregnant and postpartum women in early recovery from opioid use disorder or on medication-assisted treatment during pregnancy. The Cooley Dickinson Hospital program provides individual and group support and education to help pregnant women and new mothers continue on a path of recovery.

When Kaiser, now 30, learned she was pregnant with Landon in 2019, she was thrilled, but also scared. At the time, she was living in a halfway house and had struggled with an opioid use disorder for 14 years — and she knew she’d need to make some changes if she wanted to give birth and raise a child.

At a prenatal visit at Cooley Dickinson in the summer of 2019, she learned about New Beginnings, where she thought she might find the help she needed. In addition to working with New Beginnings Program Director Amy Walker, a certified nurse-midwife, Kaiser attended weekly support group meetings and educational sessions that covered a range of topics: proper nutrition during pregnancy, what to expect during labor and delivery, breastfeeding and newborn care, and planning for what comes after birth.

“I had no idea what to expect,” she said. These educational sessions taught her just what she could expect and helped her gain confidence. “It was such a help learning things you had no clue about, and they made me feel like I wasn’t alone.”

A growing program

New Beginnings addresses topics especially relevant to pregnant women dealing with substance use disorders: stress management, relapse prevention, caring for a baby who may be experiencing withdrawal symptoms, and what to expect when working with the state’s child welfare agency, the Department of Children and Families.

“The most important thing is that when you went to a group, you were around others and there was no judgment there,” she said. “When you relapse, you get scared, especially being a mom, and you feel like you can’t get the help you need.”

Kaiser is one of 66 patients who have gone through the program, receiving prenatal and postpartum care since it launched in February 2018. Currently, 16 patients are enrolled in the program for either individual or group care, according to Walker, the program’s founding director. In addition to individual care from Walker and other midwives at the hospital, participants also work with a social worker assigned to the program.

Walker, who has been at Cooley Dickinson since 2014, first got the idea for such a program while serving as a member of the hospital’s Opioid Task Force, established in response to the epidemic of fentanyl and opioid overdose deaths. Drawing from doctors, nurses and other staff from around the hospital, the 35-person task force spent years developing new policies and procedures to better respond to the growing opioid overdose crisis.

Co-chaired by Jeffrey Harness, chief community relations and communications officer, and Dr. Peter Halperin, the task force guided the hospital in implementing small and large policy and program changes, including getting more providers trained and certified to offer medication-assisted treatment for people in recovery and implementing new screening tools in the Emergency Department.

While on the task force, Walker thought about the fact that she sometimes was required to notify state authorities when women with substance use disorders delivered babies.

“I felt like this was one of the things we could do better,” she said. She wondered if they could develop more trauma-sensitive approaches in working with these patients, possibly giving them a better chance at getting on — and staying on — a solid path to recovery.

“I felt very passionate that we could do a better job and I could help create a better system,” she said.

Walker spends about one day a week on the New Beginnings program, caring for expecting mothers in prenatal visits or working with the program’s social worker to create the curriculum for the group education component. The New Beginnings social worker also guides women in working with DCF to develop a safe care plan for their babies.

Raising funds

Harness, the former co-chair of the task force, is so impressed with the program that on the occasion of his retirement from the hospital this month after 34 years, he invited colleagues and friends to donate to the program. He set a goal to raise $1,000 for each of his years at the hospital to provide $34,000 for the program. That sum would ensure the program is fully funded through 2025.

“I’ve spent much of my career in public health working to prevent substance use disorder, and it felt pretty natural to support New Beginnings to prevent substance use disorder at the beginning of someone’s life,” he said. “I was inspired by the work I see happening so when it came time to retire I wanted to support New Beginnings.”

Walker said she generally works with participants for about 20 weeks during their pregnancies, and offers postpartum care for up to two years afterward, again with both group and individual support.

Even with all that support, participants sometimes suffer relapses.

Kaiser experienced several relapses and lost custody of Landon for a period of time while he was cared for by his grandparents. But with the non-judgmental support she received in New Beginnings, Kaiser persevered.

She’s now in a place she never could have imagined, with 18 months of sobriety, an apartment of her own, and caring for her three children while working in peer recovery support at the Recovery Center of Hope in Ware.

“Without that program and without Amy and all the midwives, I don’t know if I would be at the place I am today,” she said.

Laurie Loisel is director of communication and community engagement at the Northwestern district attorney’s office and a member of the Hampshire HOPE opioid prevention coalition run out of Northampton’s Department of Health and Human Services.