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The Care and Treatment of Opioid Using Pregnant Women
“I had to fix myself”: The Impacts of Stigma, Motherhood and Environmental Supports on Opioid Using Pregnant Women’s Recovery
In 2019, I began a study to identify factors--persons, organizations or systems-- that increase successful efforts of engaging opioid using pregnant women into treatment and recovery.
The aim of this qualitative work was to explore the course of successful treatment engagement as remembered by mothers who are in a maintained period of recovery.
I interviewed ten mothers, currently in recovery from opioid use and no longer pregnant, about their retrospective experiences.
1.
Pregnancy was often cited as a motivating factor towards recovery for opioid using women.
2.
Women with opioid use disorder who became pregnant faced stigma.
3.
Women who become pregnant while using opioids reported guilt over their babies' health challenges/NAWS.
4.
Women expressed a need for connection and support in order to recover from their substance use disorder.
5.
Women shared the process of their early recovery and the changes they felt necessary to make in their lives.
6.
The mothers reflected upon the meaning they drew from their experiences.
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