More babies are being born addicted, suffering from withdrawal as they enter the world even right here locally.
Sparrow Hospital has all hands on deck when it comes to helping babies overcome their addiction.
"Our volunteers are awesome because they come and rock them and hold them when we can't because we have other patient assignments and we can't get to them because we have other patients, and parents can't be here all the time," Claudia Beyea said.
Claudia is a neonatal registered nurse at Sparrow.
She said holding the babies plays a vital role in calming them down.
Without it, the babies could do some serious harm to themselves.
"It's really painful to watch. They're really jittery sometimes they're so jittery that they will rub their joints raw because they are constantly moving and screaming. You have to swaddle them really tightly so that doesn't happen. They'll shake their heads sometimes and get sores on the back of their heads. Extremely hard to calm," she explained.
Withdrawals for an infant is like going through the flu but much worse. It can lasts hours, days, or even months.
The number of newborns addicted to opioids in the U.S. is up to 400% since the year 2000 according to the center for disease control and prevention. That's why volunteers are needed now more than ever to help the babies fighting addiction.
Just being there for them helps a great deal.
Kathy Zerkle has been volunteering for a while now and said she enjoys spending time with the babies.
"I pray over the babies to myself, and sometimes I sing to them. I know the nurses probably don't appreciate that because I have a terrible voice, but I'll sing like little simple songs, and they respond. They look at you and you can tell they just love the touch," she smiled.
Volunteering is a simple way for anyone to fight the epidemic and to help these babies before they go into the world.
