One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. ~Sidney Howard
Pregnant women who struggle with drug or alcohol use can achieve healthy outcomes if they receive proper prenatal care and substance abuse treatment early in their pregnancy.
“Integrating substance abuse treatment with prenatal care is cost-effective and significantly decreases negative birth outcomes,” the authors of the study write in the Journal of Perinatology.
The study involved more than 49,000 pregnant women in Kaiser Permanente’s Early Start program. “The study’s big finding was that study participants treated in the Early Start program had outcomes similar to our control group, women who had no evidence of substance abuse,” said study researcher Nancy C. Golder, M.D., regional medical director of Kaiser Permanente’s Early Start program, Northern California operation division.
In the program, women are universally screened for substance use, patients and health care providers are educated about the effects of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes on pregnancy, and appoinments with a licensed substance abuse expert are linked to the prenatal care appointments.