The number of pregnant women and new mothers dying from drug overdoses grew dramatically as the pandemic took hold, reaching a record high in 2020, a new study finds.
The research, published, provides a stark look at how substance use disorder is harming pregnant people who are less likely than others to seek or receive help for a dependency on opioids and other drugs.
While the rate of overdose deaths among women of childbearing age was higher — 19.76 per 100,000 in 2020, compared with 14.37 per 100,000 in 2017 — the rate of increase was much faster among pregnant women and those who’d given birth within the previous year. Medications like methadone and buprenorphine to treat the disorder can be used safely in pregnant women and greatly increases the chances mom will carry the baby to full term, said Dr. Stephen Patrick, a neonatologist and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy in Nashville.
"Oftentimes what we find is addiction medicine doctors not comfortable taking care of pregnant women, and obstetricians not comfortable taking care of addiction," Patrick said. Pregnant people are left stuck in the middle."Pregnant women became even more vulnerable during Covid because access to treatments for anything that wasn't Covid went down," said Dr. Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry and addiction medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.
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