Kim Brief waited within the physician’s examination room on an icy day in February, exhausted from the primary trimester of being pregnant and trembling in withdrawal from methamphetamine, alcohol, Xanax and Klonopin.
She stared on the flooring, her black hair curtaining face tattoos of a dagger and stitches, memorials to associates useless from overdose. Inky wings of eyeliner rimmed her eyes.
This was Kim’s second being pregnant with the Great Moms clinic on the Corewell Well being Medical Middle in Grand Rapids, Mich., one of many uncommon applications for a inhabitants of sufferers who’re among the many most reviled in society: pregnant girls and new moms who’re hooked on medicine and alcohol.
Kim, 32, had first come to the clinic within the fall of 2022 and, in April 2023, gave beginning to a wholesome, drug-free boy. However inside months she relapsed, and little one protecting companies positioned the child in foster care. Her despair drove her additional into habit.
Now, pregnant once more, she had returned to the one place she believed was her finest shot at staying sober and elevating this new child.
Dr. Cara Poland walked into the examination room.
“I’m so grateful that you just made your manner again to us,” she mentioned to Kim.
