Facilitating treatment initiation and reproductive care postpartum to prevent substance-exposed pregnancies: A...

For non-treatment-seeking women who use substances during pregnancy, immediately postpartum may be an optimum time for intervention. Our study tested a novel, brief, hospital-initiated, adaptive motivational interviewing plus acceptance and commitment therapy (MIACT) intervention to facilitate treatment initiation and reproductive planning postpartum among mothers who used substances during pregnancy.

Mothers (N = 64) with an infant admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit were enrolled if they or their infant tested positive for an illicit substance at delivery or had a documented positive drug screen during pregnancy. A parallel group, randomized controlled design assigned participants to MIACT or conventional care (CC), with assessments at week 2 and 4 during treatment and follow-up at 2 and 6 months post treatment. Bayesian generalized linear modeling was used to evaluate outcomes as a function of treatment.

Results indicated that during treatment the MIACT group demonstrated an 84% probability of benefit relative to CC with regard to initiating treatment (RR=1.5), however the effect was not seen at follow-up. MIACT was also associated with an increased probability of attending a postpartum obstetrics visit (RR=1.4), and receiving contraception during treatment and at both follow-ups, with posterior probabilities of 96% or higher and relative risks ranging from 1.5 to 5.1 at varying timepoints. Substance use rates for the MIACT versus CC were higher at follow-up.

Brief, hospital-initiated interventions can assist postpartum mothers who use substances to enter treatment and obtain contraception in order to reduce future substance-exposed pregnancies.