Becky,
  It has been a few years since I have worked with
new moms who abuse drugs and each state has its own rules
and protocols about giving babies back to their moms,
but my experience is that once the baby has been taken
away because baby and mom have illegal drugs in their
systems, it's tough to get the baby back. They want to
make really sure that the baby will be ok in the mother's
care. A few things to think about:
  If the mother is pumping that is a good sign and the
DSS people should know it.
  Can the expressed milk be tansferred to the foster parents
so the baby can get mother's milk? This is obviously good
for baby and also gives the authorities an indication of seriousness
of the new mother.
  Can it be arranged for the baby to be in foster care
with a relative? Sometimes DSS is willing to do this and'
other times they are hesitant because they fear the baby
will go back into the mother's unsupervised hands.
  How is DSS supervising the case themselves? What is
your involvement? Can you talk directly with the mom's
caseworker - professional to professional - to try to
come up with a workable plan? Are there other
professionals (social worker from a local school or
health clinic or WIC office) who can help out too?
  Drugs are hard to shake. This mom will need LOTS of
support from lots of different sources to be able to get
off and stay off the drugs.
  Good luck to you and to her. Please keep us posted and let
us know if there is anything else we can do.
  Naomi Bar-Yam
  [log in to unmask]

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New England Complex Systems Institute
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