Licensed nursing assistant Jordan Bushy (right) and a student nurse care for a newborn at the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital. (Photo: Ryan Mercer, University of Vermont Health Network)

(APRIL 30, 2023) The Associated Press reported that research led by Leslie Young, M.D., neonatologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center and UVM Children’s Hospital and associate professor of pediatrics at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine, has found that babies exposed to opioids in the womb had shorter hospital stays and needed less medication when their care emphasized parent involvement, skin-to-skin contact, and a quiet environment. In this approach — called Eat, Sleep, Console — nurses involve mothers as they evaluate together whether rocking, breastfeeding, or swaddling can calm the baby, Dr. Young said.

About 5,000 nurses were trained during the study, published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The National Institutes of Health funded the work as part of an initiative to address the U.S. opioid addiction crisis.

Young's work was also featured in Patient Care and WVNY-TV (Colchester, Vt.), KDBC-TV (El Paso, Texas), the Citizen Tribune (Morristown, Tenn.), the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, and numerous other media outlets.