McMillen Health has released a new app called Healthy Tomorrow, which offers important information for pregnant women or new mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD). Development of the app was supported by the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation; it’s available for free through Apple or Google Play.

According to McMillen Health, when pregnant women use opioids, whether through a prescription or illicit use, the drug and dependency passes to the baby. The majority of these infants face sudden withdrawal at birth and experience neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which is characterized by tremors, screaming, seizures, breathing problems, poor feeding, and low birthweight. More than 15% of all babies born in Indiana test positive for opioids and experience some symptoms of NAS.

“Healthy Tomorrow was born from the stories of women with OUD who could not find reliable, quality health information on pregnancy, infancy and OUD and its far-ranging implications,” says Nicole Fairchild, Executive Director of McMillen Health, the oldest independently operated health education center in the US. “Healthy Tomorrow delivers friendly, easily-digestible health education in short video format for women and their infants, babies and young children.”

McMillen’s app features short, welcoming videos on prenatal care, infant development, mental health, recovery planning, and a variety of OUD and maternal and infant health topics. In Healthy Tomorrow, women can complete a pretest, watch a category of videos, then complete a posttest to earn badges that they can redeem at A Baby’s Closet in Allen County for baby goods. Evaluation results will help McMillen Health improve the app’s performance.

McMillen Health leaders are asking anyone who works with pregnant women or new mothers with OUD to help spread the word about the Healthy Tomorrow app. To learn more about the app and to receive a promotional kit, local health and non-profit leaders should contact Megan Wilkinson at 260-456-4511 x331 or mwilkinson@mcmillenhealth.org. More information is also available online at mcmillenhealth.org/healthy-tomorrow/.