OSU Medicine has launched a Tulsa program that brings pregnancy care and addiction treatment into coordinated visits, an approach the university describes as the first of its kind in eastern Oklahoma.

The Maternal and Addiction Recovery Care Program pairs board-certified addiction medicine physicians with OB-GYN doctors to treat pregnant and postpartum patients struggling with opioid, alcohol and other substance use disorders, Public Radio Tulsa reported.

The program began seeing patients several months before its public launch. It has already cared for 25 patients, according to Dr. Erin Brown, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at OSU Medicine.

"Too often, people facing addiction encounter barriers that make it hard to seek help," Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said at the program's launch event Tuesday, Oct. 27. "… Our healthcare approach shouldn't really require them to navigate a complicated system on their own."

The Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) committed $100,000 to get the program running. Kimberly Butler, a senior program officer for the foundation, said GKFF would be willing to increase that commitment depending on need, according to Public Radio Tulsa.

What patients receive

Patients in the program get access to doulas, lactation specialists and pediatricians alongside addiction treatment, including medications for opioid use disorder. Care continues up to 12 months after delivery, according to the OSU Medicine program page.

The program also offers newborn and pediatric care planning, including education related to neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

Referrals come from OB-GYN providers, primary care physicians, emergency departments, behavioral health professionals and community organizations.

A gap in treatment

Dr. Kelly Dunn, chief of addiction medicine at OSU Medicine, said mental health and substance use conditions among pregnant mothers are more common than people might expect.

Nationally, about one in seven pregnant women met criteria for a substance use disorder within the previous year between 2021 and 2023, according to a study cited by Public Radio Tulsa. Only one in 10 pregnant women with a substance use disorder received treatment.

"Those numbers represent women who deserve effective care and families whose futures we have an opportunity to change," Dunn said.

Mental health conditions were the leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths in 2022, according to CDC maternal mortality review committee data for 2022..

Nichols said resources should be available to pregnant mothers before they reach a moment of crisis. "Providing this level of care is a shared responsibility," he said.

Looking ahead

Organizers hope to expand the program beyond Tulsa by using telehealth to partner with rural hospitals, according to Public Radio Tulsa.

Brown said motherhood can motivate individuals struggling with substance use to seek treatment, but many do not know where to start.

The program is located at the OSU Obstetrics and Gynecology Houston Center, 717 S. Houston Ave., Suite 200, in Tulsa. The referral phone number is 918-586-4530.