Care and Management

Read the case scenario listed below. In your initial post, address the questions posed at the end of the scenario. In your response post, please address information you learned about available resources in your clinic area and how you would access them. When reading your peer’s posts, what similarities and differences are noted compared to your clinical or community standards of care?

Detail your approach to care and management for the following case scenario:

A 21-year old woman presents for prenatal visit, her 1st even though she is well into her third trimester and her EDC is predicted to be within a month or so.  Her boyfriend, the father of the child, has not been supportive to date of the pregnancy and is also not on good terms with her own parents.  At first, she denies alcohol or drug use but after a while, she opens up and talks about an ongoing opioid addiction.  Most of the time, she takes Percocet bought on the street but due to cost, she has recently begun using heroin.  It becomes clear that she will not be “clean” prior to her delivery and that her child will be born also affected by maternal opiate use.Since she has almost no external support, you know that after she delivers, she will be the primary caregiver of the infant and also hopefully working a detox program.

• What is the accepted name of the condition with which the child will be born? What are the peri-natal risks to the infant? What are the post-natal risks to the infant? What are the post-natal risks to the mother?
• Is there any evidence on the long-term risk to the child?
• In your response post to a peer:  Please share information on the resources available in your clinical practice to address these concerns.