The relationship between recent cocaine use and pregnancy outcome

We conducted urine screening for cocaine metabolite in 500 consecutive women admitted to a labor and delivery unit. The pregnancy outcome of 411 of the women was determined at that admission. The prevalence of cocaine-positive urines was 15.3% (95% confidence interval 11.8-18.8%). A subset of this population that had not received prenatal care had a prevalence of 62% (95% confidence interval 47.2-76.6%). Women with positive urines were almost four times more likely to have preterm labor and over twice as likely to deliver a premature infant or one with a 1-minute Apgar score of 6 or lower. Our findings support the concept that urine drug screening for cocaine and/or other drugs of abuse should be considered in patients who present with no prenatal care, premature labor, premature delivery, and delivery of an infant with a 1-minute Apgar score of 6 or less. This strategy may enable us to identify and bring to therapy a population of women that could potentially go unrecognized.