Jessica Silansky is a Certified Methadone Advocate, a certified Hepatitis C Educator and a Substance Abuse Counselor. Jessica’s most recent position was in Springfield, Massachusetts as a Case Manager for clients with the Disease of Addiction. Jessica is a graduate of Westfield State College Addiction Counselor Education Program. Jessica resides in the Springfield, Massachusetts area where she is currently spending time with her family and is a full time college student working on her ultimate goal of a masters degree in Counseling Psychology
Jessica first came to MethadoneSupport.org/PregnancyInfo seeking advice about pregnancy and methadone for herself and she has been here ever since. Her special interest in methadone and pregnancy drove her to expand her knowledge and she attended the New England School of Addiction Studies where she took classes in methadone and pregnancy. Jessica has been studying under Sharon Dembinski (a well known expert in this field) and learning all she can while she filled the role of Pregnancy Support Specialist for the site.
After finding recovery back in January 2005 Jessica found her calling and discovered her passion- Substance Abuse Counseling. It was through the death of someone very close to her that she came to realize that she needed to seek recovery and change her life. Jessica has had two babies while in treatment on methadone and is grateful for her recovery and the lifesaving medication that assisted her in maintaining her recovery and assuring the healthy outcomes to both her pregnancies. Jessica felt so strongly about methadone maintenance treatment that she traveled to the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) convention in New York City in April of 2009 where she attended the course to become a Certified Methadone Advocate (CMA).
Jessica quickly realized that her true calling within her passion of substance abuse counseling was methadone and pregnancy. She loves working with all the women that find our site in need of support, education and facts. Jessica plans to be here for a long time to come and working on our pregnancy support forum is a tremendous joy for her. Sharon Dembinski asked Jessica to serve as site Administrator a few months ago and Jessica accepted that role.
Sharon remains on as Expert Consultant and is available to Jessica 24/7!
We at MSO are proud and grateful to have Jessica here!....
Carol Sholiton
Founder/CEO - Methadone Support Org.
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Sharon *ADMINISTRATOR* Posts: 1312 Registered: Mar 2006
Posted August 16th, 2007 12:22 AM IPFavorable Outcomes in Preterm Infants of Mothers on MMT
Investigators determined the effect of preterm delivery on the course of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in infants born to mothers participating in a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) program. A retrospective study was conducted in which infant and maternal data were collected from the medical records of 53 preterm and 66 term infants. These were selected from all infants born between 1998 and 2002 whose mothers were enrolled in the MMT program at the Thomas Jefferson University hospital, Philadelphia, PA. All infants were managed by a standard protocol using the Neonatal Abstinence Scoring System (NASS) and neonatal opiate solution (NOS).
Preterm infants had shorter lengths of hospital stay, briefer treatment courses, and required less NOS medication than did term infants during the same time period. According to the authors, their data indicate that following exposure to maternal methadone preterm infants have a different [although seemingly favorable] neonatal course than do infants born at term.
Source: Dysart K, Hsieh HC, Kaltenbach K, Greenspan JS. Sequela of preterm versus term infants born to mothers on a methadone maintenance program: differential course of neonatal abstinence syndrome. J Perinat Med. 2007, May 21 [Epub ahead of print].
Commentary from Sharon:
Interesting study but I have some concerns......Preterm babies respond differently to many different things and the scoring tools used to evaluate NAS was developed for use in fullterm, short acting exposed neonates. Preterm babies are neurologically immature and they may not have the abilty to show some of the signs of withdrawal that full term babies can express. Just because the scores are lower does not mean they are not experiencing withdrawa and I often wonder if this tool is really measuring withdrawal in the preterm accurately and whether or not this pt population may be under treated.....Sharon Dembinski, PNP, CMA
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
Certified Methadone Advocate
Board of Directors- Methadone Support Org
