Mother & Baby Substance Exposure Toolkit

This toolkit introduces best practices to support and improve the quality of care for substance exposed mothers and newborns.

Throughout the toolkit, the terms mother or maternal or she or her are used in reference to the birthing person. We recognize not all birthing people identify as mothers or women. We believe all birthing people are equally deserving of patient-centered care that helps them attain their full potential and live authentic, healthy lives.

Explore the Toolkit

Let's learn about our Archetypes

Kayla

Kayla

Kayla's prescription drug dependency and marijuana use are complicated by trauma, pregnancy, depression, and anxiety. How can we help Kayla?

Baby M

Baby M

Baby M has had a difficult journey through gestation and will be born with an increased risk of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Baby M will need focused care and evaluation from a number of team members whose main goal will be to create an environment of safety and maintain the mother-baby dyad.

Where do you work?

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Outpatient

The Best Practices in this section apply to staff, administration, and providers who care for expecting and/or postpartum mothers, and newborns, in the outpatient setting.

hospital

Labor and Delivery

The Best Practices in this section apply to staff, administration, and providers who provide inpatient care to women who are pregnant, in labor, or immediately postpartum.

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Nursery/NICU

The Best Practices in this section apply to staff, administration, and providers who provide inpatient care to newborns in the newborn nursery and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

What topic do you want to learn about?

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Click below to see the Best Practices for each topic area

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Screening Assessment and Level of Care Determination

Topic areas include: universal screening with a validated verbal screening tool, maternal urine toxicology and the role of explicit/implicit bias, selective newborn biological toxicology testing, and more.

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Treatment

Topic areas include: inpatient treatment protocols, pain management and anesthesia, minimizing opioid use, breastfeeding, pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment of newborns with NAS, and more.

hospital

Transition of Care

Topic areas include: creating a dyad-centered Plan of Safe Care, implementing a discharge checklist, linking to home visitation programs and other resources, communication with the follow-up newborn provider, and more.

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Education

Topic areas include: educating staff about opioid use disorder, Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, stigma, Trauma-Informed Care, and more.