Photographs of Moms Being Treated for Painkiller Addiction

at the Wall Street Journal:

A small but growing number of clinics for mothers-to-be are cropping up around the country in response to a prescription-drug epidemic, which has triggered a rise of addicted mothers giving birth to drug-dependent babies. Between 2000 and 2009, the number of newborns showing symptoms of withdrawal from opioids, which are commonly used to treat pain, rose in the U.S. to 3.4 births per 1,000, according to a 2012 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Photographer Andrew Spear, on assignment for The Wall Street Journal, photographed a few mothers who received treatment from one of the clinics, the new Maternal Addiction and Recovery Center at Marshall University’s medical school in Huntington, W. Va.

more (via The Fix)