“You had better be prepared for a long stay.” The medical nurse’s words were designed to jolt my wife and me into recognizing the seriousness of the situation. The previous day we had boarded a plane to fly to another state and attend the birth of the younger of our two adopted daughters.
Part of the domestic adoption process is being matched with a birth mother. For those who want to know the history of a particular birth mother before agreeing to a match, there are medical disclosures available for review, when appropriate. My wife and I noticed that in many cases the birth mothers were on methadone. This is a drug prescribed to those battling drug addiction, in order to keep them off harder illegal drugs.
Shortly after our younger daughter’s birth, she started exhibiting alarming symptoms associated with withdrawal from methadone, and she was moved to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). It was there that the nurse delivered her warning to my wife and me.
