Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 May;41(4):851-862.
doi: 10.1111/dar.13421. Epub 2022 Jan 17.

A qualitative meta-synthesis of pregnant women's experiences of accessing and receiving treatment for opioid use disorder

Freya Tsuda-McCaie  1 , Yasuhiro Kotera  2
Affiliations
Review

A qualitative meta-synthesis of pregnant women's experiences of accessing and receiving treatment for opioid use disorder

Freya Tsuda-McCaie et al. Drug Alcohol Rev. 2022 May.

Abstract

Issues: Addressing opioid use disorder (OUD) among pregnant women is of growing importance, and substance use treatment positively impacts outcomes for mother and baby. Understanding substance use treatment experiences is important to improve access, and retention, and no review or synthesis of research addressing the treatment experiences of pregnant women exists.

Approach: Thus, a qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted, which investigated the psychological motivators and barriers of pregnant women with OUD trying to access treatment and their perceptions of treatment.

Key findings: A total of 3844 articles were retrieved from the literature search. Nine articles met eligibility criteria, were appraised, then synthesised using a comparative thematic approach. Four themes: (i) Embodied Experiences; (ii) Institutional Pressures; (iii) Social Context; and (iv) Reconstructing Selves; indicate that women with OUD are motivated to engage in treatment to pursue the safety and custody of the unborn baby and to pursue and enact the changes necessary to claim 'normal' parenthood status. Pregnant women describe psychological and relational barriers to engaging in treatment, including anxieties about the baby's health, fears of authorities' involvement, stigma and experiencing relationships with treatment providers as constrictive or invalidating.

Implications: Identity theory's concepts of identity verification, closed environments and master status identities illuminate the findings. Implications include recognising the salience of bodily experiences, providing medication-assisted treatment support groups and promoting validating relationships in treatment using strengths-based approaches.

Conclusions: Pregnant women face unique psychological challenges in accessing and engaging in substance use treatment for OUD.

Keywords: medication-assisted treatment; meta-analysis; opioid use disorder; pregnancy; substance use treatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. SAMHSA. Clinical Guidance for Treating Pregnant and Parenting Women with Opioid Use Disorder and Their Infants [Internet]. 2018. Available at: https://store.samhsa.gov/product/Clinical-Guidance-for-Treating-Pregnant... (accessed 20 April 2020).
    1. Haight SC, Ko JY, Tong VT, Bohm MK, Callaghan WM. Opioid use disorder documented at delivery hospitalization-United States, 1999-2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2018;67:845-9.
    1. Ludlow JP, Evans SF, Hulse G. Obstetric and perinatal outcomes in pregnancies associated with illicit substance abuse. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol 2004;44:302-6.
    1. Park EM, Meltzer-Brody S, Suzuki J. Evaluation and management of opioid dependence in pregnancy. Psychosomatics 2012;53:424-32.
    1. Kocherlakota P. Neonatal abstinence syndrome. Pediatrics 2014;134:547-61.

LinkOut - more resources