Cocaine use: implications for intervention with childbearing women and their infants

This paper summarizes the literature on the effects of maternal cocaine use, drawing implications from the literature for the development of early intervention programs. It is suggested that intervention must be focused on maternal cocaine use among childbearing women as well as perinatal cocaine exposure among infants. Emphasis is placed on interventions that promote a reduction in drug use by potential childbearing women as well as expectant mothers and that focus on promotion of optimum parent-child interaction and parenting skills as well as maternal self-sufficiency.