美国国家公共电台 NPR Childbirth In The Age Of Addiction: New Mom Worries About Maintaining Her Sobriety

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

It's common to use opioids during childbirth. They're administered in epidurals and during C-sections. Women are often sent home with a bottle of pills. For most women, it doesn't become a problem. But for mothers recovering from addiction¹, a pain-free childbirth isn't so simple. April Dembosky from member station KQED explains.

APRIL DEMBOSKY, BYLINE²: Nicole Veum says when she was in her early 20s, she made a lot of mistakes.

NICOLE VEUM: I was really sad, and I didn't want to feel my feelings. And I turned to the most natural way I could find to cover that all up and started using drugs.

DEMBOSKY: She got into opioids.

VEUM: Prescription³ pills, heroin⁴ for a little bit of time.

DEMBOSKY: Her family got her into treatment. Nicole had been sober for nine years when she and her husband decided⁵ to have a baby. This was something she wanted to feel. She told her doctor if she needed an epidural, she didn't want any fentanyl in it. She didn't want to feel high.

VEUM: Because I'd remembered seeing, like, other friends and stuff. They'd used it, and they were feeling good and stuff. And I didn't want that to be a part of my story.

DEMBOSKY: Epidurals are usually a mix of two types of medications - a numbing⁶ agent and a painkiller⁷, usually fentanyl. But addiction expert Dr. Kelly Pfeifer says it's easy to formulate⁸ one without the fentanyl.

KELLY PFEIFER: There's no medical reason why someone should be forced to be exposed to opioids if they don't want to.

DEMBOSKY: Pfeifer says there's another issue for women who are in active treatment for opioid addiction and taking methadone or suboxone. Some other narcotics⁹ commonly used for pain during labor¹⁰ can immediately reverse the effects of those treatments.

PFEIFER: And suddenly, you're in the middle of labor, which is already painful, and now you're in the middle of the worst withdrawal¹¹ of your life.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO CHATTER)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Control 2, Battalion¹² 7's responding to Sutter Hospital area.

DEMBOSKY: For Nicole Veum, it was the worst wildfire in California history that interrupted her birth plan.

VEUM: There was a ton of smoke in the hospital. Like, you could visibly see it outside and smell it.

DEMBOSKY: She was in active labor when nurses said everybody had to evacuate¹³. Veum was transferred to another hospital 5 miles away, and the special instructions for her epidural got lost in the chaos¹⁴.

VEUM: And then when I - when they went to change the drug, I saw the tube said fentanyl on it. And by that point, I was starting to feel the itchies (ph).

DEMBOSKY: One of her familiar signs of starting to get high. Then, Veum needed a C-section, and doctors sent her home afterward¹⁵ with a bottle of Percocet, another opioid. Expert Kelly Pfeifer says in a situation like this, ibuprofen would've been fine.

PFEIFER: Any parent will tell you there's nothing more stressful than the first week of being a parent and having a baby and being in sleep deprivation¹⁶. And here, you have a little bottle of Vicodin that you use to turn to make you feel better when you're stressed.

DEMBOSKY: First, the fires, then the fentanyl in her epidural, then the Percocet - it was Veum's first test, seeing how her sobriety and motherhood would line up.

VEUM: I was OK. I was OK with it. It was just - it just was something that had happened.

DEMBOSKY: She called a friend who's also in recovery and talked it all through. She said the Percocet could've sent her down a rabbit hole, but it didn't. She was fine leaving that behind.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHILD'S TOY)

VEUM: You know, a lot of people metaphorically¹⁷ felt it as the baby coming out of the ash - you know, the life coming from the ashes and stuff. And I feel that. I feel like it was a big time for our community and me, personally, to be reborn in some way, you know?

ADRIAN VEUM: (Babbling).

DEMBOSKY: She says taking care of Adrian this past year has taught her how to take care of herself. For NPR News, I'm April Dembosky in Santa Rosa.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAVID CROSBY SONG, "BALANCED ON A PIN")

SIMON: And this story is part of a reporting partnership¹⁸ between NPR, KQED and Kaiser Health News.

1 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

4 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 numbing   

adj.使麻木的，使失去感觉的v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Watching television had a numbing effect on his mind. 看电视使他头脑麻木。
• It was numbing work, requiring patience and dedication. 这是一种令人麻木的工作，需要有耐心和忘我精神。 来自辞典例句

7 painkiller   

n.止痛药

参考例句：

• I shall persuade him to take the painkiller.我将说服他把药吃下去。
• The painkiller only provides him a short respite from his pain.止痛药仅仅让他在疼痛中有短暂的疏解。

8 formulate   

v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述

参考例句：

• He took care to formulate his reply very clearly.他字斟句酌，清楚地做了回答。
• I was impressed by the way he could formulate his ideas.他陈述观点的方式让我印象深刻。

9 narcotics   

n.麻醉药( narcotic的名词复数 )；毒品；毒

参考例句：

• The use of narcotics by teenagers is a problem in many countries. 青少年服用麻醉药在许多国家中都是一个问题。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Police shook down the club, looking for narcotics. 警方彻底搜查了这个俱乐部，寻找麻醉品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

12 battalion   

n.营；部队；大队(的人)

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned by a battalion.该镇由一营士兵驻守。
• At the end of the drill parade,the battalion fell out.操练之后，队伍解散了。

13 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

14 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

15 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

16 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

17 metaphorically   

adv. 用比喻地

参考例句：

• It is context and convention that determine whether a term will be interpreted literally or metaphorically. 对一个词的理解是按字面意思还是隐喻的意思要视乎上下文和习惯。
• Metaphorically it implied a sort of admirable energy. 从比喻来讲，它含有一种令人赞许的能量的意思。

18 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。