In spite of the growing
knowledge and understanding of addiction as a chronic relapsing medical
condition, individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) continue to
experience stigmatization. Pregnant women who use substances suffer additional
stigma as their use has the potential to cause fetal harm, calling into
question their maternal fitness and often leading to punitive responses.
Punishing pregnant women denies the integral interconnectedness of the
maternal-fetal dyad. Linking substance use with maternal unfitness is not
supported by the balance of the scientific evidence regarding the actual harms
associated with substance use during pregnancy. Such linkage adversely impacts
maternal, child, and family health by deterring pregnant women from seeking
both obstetrical care and SUD treatment. Pregnant women who use substances
deserve compassion and care, not pariah-status and punishment.
...However, equating SUD with
maternal unfitness is inconsistent with how other chronic illnesses are
conceptualized and managed during pregnancy, reflecting the continued
perception of prenatal substance use and SUD as moral failures rather than
medical conditions. Individuals with substance use face systematic
stigmatization, which on an individual level impedes engagement with the health
care system and on a population level prevents broader investment in treatment
and other services to support recovery.39,48–50 Pregnant women with SUD face greater and unique
challenges when they are portrayed – by healthcare professionals, the public
and its policies, and even other substance users – as harming their children
and being unfit mothers...
Full article at: http://goo.gl/7dfmqO
By:
- 1Behavioral Health System Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. ; Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
- 2Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
- 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
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