+JMJ+ Greetings! Here we are at the second week of Lent already. I’ve made an extra effort to remember what I’m doing this time, fasting and abstinence. And I’ve managed to mostly keep to it. Mostly. Old habits are hard to break. And I’ve spent the past couple of days dealing with illness. But then I stumbled upon some videos about babies whose mothers are addicted to some serious drugs and their babies go through some awful withdrawal after they’re born. Looking at my suffering after that? No comparison. (These poor little ones really grabbed my attention and my heart this weekend. Be forewarned. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So here’s tonight’s post.)

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

Those poor kids have no idea why they’re in a world of pain. And they did nothing to bring it on or to deserve it. God bless the people helping them as they go through their intense suffering.

I found a lot of videos about the rise in babies born addicted to drugs like heroin and other opioids, and alcohol. Giving them methadone and tapering it off helps these little ones get off the stuff.

But I just realized that not all but almost all the videos I’m finding are from several years ago. Now, I cannot imagine that the problem no longer exists so I’m going to do some further digging to find out what’s happening now.

If any of y’all out there know anything, please tell us what you know in the comments below. Maybe they’ve come so far with their new way of treating these babies that they no longer make videos about it. (Spoiler alert: The secret new treatment turns out to consist of, mainly, skin on skin contact, cuddling—in a word, love. Who would have guessed?)

Video, Born on Opioids – What It’s Like

Video, Adopting A Baby With Opioid Addiction – A Painful Yet Worth-While Journey

Video, When babies are born withdrawing from opioids

Video, Number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome is on rise

Offering up our suffering

Meanwhile I’m thinking of offering up my sufferings this Lent, and beyond, for these poor babies and their mothers, and the wonderful medical teams and volunteers who are giving of themselves to help them. Now I grew up not ever hearing of such a thing as offering up my suffering so I had no idea how to do this when I began looking into Catholicism. 

Video, Fr. James Brent, O.P. on “Offer it Up”

Thanks for visiting the blog and reading. May we grow in holiness and virtue in this Lenten season, and, by His grace, become the saints the Lord intends us to be. God bless you, and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

Join me on Fridays for the Rosary Project Live on Twitter at 8pm ET, 7pm CT, to cultivate a culture of Life and Love, and to end the culture of death. There’s also a Rosary on the blog you can use anytime.

“The Rosary is the ‘weapon’ for these times.” — Padre Pio

---

Notes and Links

• What Is Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) via WebMD.
• Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome via the NEJM.
• Salvifici Doloris, On The Christian Meaning Of Human Suffering, by Pope John Paul II.
• Note: I am not explaining away these babies’ suffering or blaming anyone for it, I’m saying that we can offer our suffering to help these babies and their mothers. We can offer our suffering for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls, for anybody, for everybody. (Except demons. There’s no helping demons, even though someone argued with me about that not too long ago. But that’s a subject for another post.)

Subscribe via email: While you’re here, subscribe to get new blog posts, updates on projects like the ebooks, giveaways, and who knows what else. And thank you very much!

Image credit: Baby crying, photo from Pixabay.

Full disclosure: When you make any purchase through my Amazon affiliate links (or my general Amazon link) on this site, I may make a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you. And thank you for your prayers and support.

Copyright: All original material on Catholic Heart and Mind is Copyright © 2009-2023 Lee Lancaster. All rights reserved. Read more.