PREGNANT DRUG USERS FIND HAVEN IN ROCK HILL

Hope And Help For Addicted

Boarder Beds Provides Hooked Future Moms A Chance To Get Clean

ROCK HILL -- Denise's road to drug addiction began at age 16, when
she and a group of friends drank and smoked marijuana together. By
the time she was in her late 20s, she had moved on to crack cocaine.

Denise tried to quit, but never could. And when she learned she was
pregnant with twin girls, even that wasn't enough.

"I really wanted to stop, but I just couldn't. Just the smell of it
made me want it," said Denise, 38, of Rock Hill. "I knew I was
hurting them (the babies), but crack cocaine is a powerful, powerful
thing."

Despite using drugs early in her pregnancy, Denise overcame her habit
and gave birth to healthy twin daughters with the help of Boarder
Beds, a program run by Keystone Substance Abuse Services in Rock Hill.

Denise's girls, who are now 2 years old, are among the 18 healthy
babies who have been born since the program began in 1998. Denise
asked that her real name not be used in order to protect her
daughters' identities. Boarder Beds is a residential drug treatment
program that houses drug-addicted women during their pregnancies.
Participants receive counseling and peer support, said Keystone
Executive Director Janet Martini.

Keystone receives federal, state and county money, as well as grant
funding, to support its $2 million budget.

Martini hopes the program will help more mothers after it expands its
facilities. Next year, Keystone plans to construct a new building on
its property on Herlong Avenue and expand an existing structure.

Martini said drug-dependent pregnant women need special treatment
because they face unique challenges when trying to overcome drug and
alcohol addition. They put their unborn children at risk of a variety
of birth defects and learning disabilities, and many end up with poor
social skills, she said.

Martini said pregnant women sometimes are more vulnerable to drug use
because they are dealing with hormonal changes and other pressures.
She said many women use drugs or alcohol to cope, because it is the
only way they know how.

"Just because a woman is pregnant, doesn't mean she stops being
addicted to drugs," Martini said. "It's almost like telling them to
cut off their right arm or telling them not to eat. It's so much of
an instinct."

Denise said she decided to get help when the state took away her 14-
and 16-year-old sons for six months and threatened her with jail if
she didn't get clean. She said her outlook on life changed when she
began participating in Boarder Beds and learned addiction is an
illness.

She said counselors taught her that she needed to stay away from
certain people and places to successfully stay clean. Denise said she
also had to overcome the guilt caused by the way she had treated her
kids.

"In order to recover, I had to let a lot of stuff go," Denise said.
"It gave me a chance to look at my life history, and look at what I
was doing to these babies and that I could lose them."

Denise and her children live with her parents, and she is saving
money to get her own place. She said becoming self-sufficient is a
slow process, but staying off drugs is more important.