Opioid Use by Pregnant and Parenting Women: Let's Not Repeat the Mistakes of 25 Years Ago.

Abstract

mong the opioid epidemic’s most wrenching harms are the increased numbers of parents who struggle to care for their children. This year, more than 30,000 newborns will likely be diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), the physiological symptoms of opioid withdrawal. 1 Because the agony is so widespread and so raw, accompanying news stories command front-page attention. Yet these gripping human stories threaten to lead us astray, feeding narratives of hopelessness and stigma that harm people we need to help. know this years When epidemic inner-city America, valued who appeared irreparably damaged