ABIGAIL MARTINEZ

University of Arizona

Abigailjmartinez@arizona.edu

Abigail Martinez is an incoming junior at the University of Arizona, majoring in Biology with a biomedical science emphasis and minors in Spanish and biochemistry. She hopes to graduate in 2025 and attend medical school to become a pediatrician. Abigail is a first-generation Mexican-American student born in Tucson, AZ.

She is interested in research and especially enjoys being a mentor for the Research Associates Program at the UofA. Additionally, she volunteers at NETlab, focusing on different forms of memory and its ties as predictors for Alzheimer’s. Abigail is also interested in health disparities relating to language barriers in the Hispanic community. She volunteers at Clinica Amistad and also at El Rio, where she participates in medical translation in Spanish for this specific patient population. She is also interested in mental health issues for the Hispanic population and is a CAPS peer counselor who holds support groups for Hispanic/bilingual students at the university.

In her free time, Abigail enjoys baking and spending time with family, as well as teaching Sunday school classes.

⊲ PROJECT

Breastfeeding support among mothers with opioid use disorder and its association with perceptions of breastfeeding reward and challenge.

The prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) among pregnant women in the US has increased 600% over the past 2 decades. Prenatal exposure to opioids can result in withdrawal symptoms and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). Breastfeeding benefits mothers with OUD and reduces NAS severity as methadone and buprenorphine are transferred through breast milk. Given the advantages for the physical and emotional development of the newborn, as well as protective effects for the mother, breastfeeding is recommended for mothers receiving opioid maintenance medication, according to several professional and governmental organizations.

However, due to worries about opioid toxicity in babies, breastfeeding is frequently discouraged for moms with OUD. Despite evidence that breastfeeding can improve infant health and mother-infant attachment, common barriers to breastfeeding among mothers with OUD persist, including lack of support, stigma, and dissemination of inaccurate information.

This research focuses on lack of support as a barrier to breastfeeding, and the hypothesis is that mothers with OUD receiving professional and/or familial social support to breastfeed will report higher levels of perceived reward and lower levels of perceived challenge with early breastfeeding. On the other hand, those discouraged with no support will perceive higher levels of challenge and lower levels of reward.