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Lauren Sousa agonized over the paint colors in Southcoast Health’s newest facility.
She’s a registered nurse and the team lead for the hospital system’s New Beginnings Moms Do Care program, which provides addiction services for pregnant women and mothers.
“We wanted to make sure the first thing they see is bright, happy, and cheerful,” she said.
She settled on a bright, cool baby blue and a soft seafoam shade for some walls, and a subtly warm white for the rest. A rainbow mosaic art print hangs next to the front door.
Sousa led a reporter and photographer on a tour of the program’s new office at 543 North St. in New Bedford this week. Her team was putting on the final touches as they prepared for a Friday ribbon cutting.
Pregnancy, delivery, and parenthood are challenging for anyone, and they can be even harder for mothers who’ve experienced drug addiction, Sousa said. New Beginnings exists to provide a community of support for those moms.
“A support circle is going to make or break someone’s ability to maintain recovery,” she said.
At New Beginnings, that support circle is made up of other mothers and professional staff. The program is structured as a one-stop “hub” — mothers can be connected to a broad range of outside services including obstetric care, addiction treatment, and even assistance programs to help their family stay housed and fed.
Until now, program staff had been making do at an office in Fairhaven with only cubicles and white noise machines to separate one conversation from another.
“To have the space to see clients directly will be transformational,” said Christine Cernak, a registered nurse and executive director of integrated care management at Southcoast Health.
At the new location, Sousa walked through a waiting room and past the “hydration station,” stocked with coffee, tea, and other drinks. She led the tour into a brightly lit room with a couch, TV, tables, and chairs.
“This is where the magic happens,” she said.
The room is designed for support groups, a key part of the program. Just feet away from the couch are baby rockers, toys, and areas to store milk or heat up a bottle.
It’s meant to be a soothing space, Sousa said. Framed illustrations of mothers and children hang above the couch. She plans to create a “mama fame wall” with Polaroids of program participants.
On the tour, Sousa also poked her head into a few smaller rooms where women can speak privately with a nurse, recovery coach, or a family advocate who acts as a sort of case manager. A closet is stocked with parenting essentials like baby formula and diapers, right next to books on addiction recovery.
Every light in the office is dimmable, because newborns in opioid withdrawal can be sensitive to bright light. And New Beginnings staff made sure that some doors had windows, so that women with histories of trauma didn’t feel blocked in.
The bathroom has a sensor that detects if someone is inside and hasn’t moved in a while. That’s because the New Beginnings program caters to a population that is vulnerable to relapsing, which can result in an overdose. If the alarm is triggered, staff get an alert on their phones so they can intervene.
Southcoast Health launched New Beginnings in 2016, focusing on mothers giving birth to opioid-exposed newborns. Since 2021, the program has enrolled almost 250 patients.
In 2023, the program received a state grant to provide services for women with any substance addiction from the beginning of pregnancy to three years postpartum.
“Our number-one goal is keeping moms and babies together,” said Kim Pina, a registered nurse and executive director of Southcoast Health’s Family Centered Unit.
A judgment-free zone
A supportive, stigma-free space is critical for pregnant women and mothers struggling with addiction, Sousa said. The program is staffed with professionals who understand the struggles these women face.
Stephanie Perry, a registered nurse who does outreach work as the leader of the hospital system’s Community Wellness Program, knows this population well. She said that treating them without judgment makes it more likely they’ll keep coming back.
“A lot of these women are very guarded,” Perry said. “They’re fearful they’re going to lose their child.”
The program takes a harm-reduction approach. This means that when a patient isn’t ready to stop using illicit drugs, staff focus on reducing the harms of that drug use instead of turning them away.
There’s no successful way to force recovery on someone, Sousa said. She and other staff say harm reduction works because it keeps women coming back to appointments and groups, increasing the likelihood that they will eventually reach recovery.
“Ultimately, it’s incremental change that leads someone on a lifetime journey of improvements,” Cernak said. “The New Beginnings team is very effective at identifying where patients are in that journey and supporting them in taking those next steps.”
Until recently, health care providers in Massachusetts were required to file a report with the Department of Children and Families whenever a baby was born with opioids in their system. Critics of the law said it triggered unnecessary, stressful investigations into women who were in long-term recovery and taking addiction treatment medications prescribed by their doctor.
Last month, the Legislature removed the automatic reporting requirement. Health care providers can still file reports if they fear that a child is in danger. New Beginnings staff celebrated the change.
“It will help support the shift in destigmatizing engagement in medication-assisted treatment for people that are experiencing the chronic illness of addiction,” Sousa said.
Email housing reporter Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
