Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Maternity for opiate users in Vietnam is challenging due to the criminalization of drug use, stigmatization, and poor specialist knowledge among health providers. This article outlines action research conducted among Vietnamese women who had experienced pregnancy while opiate-dependent. Misguided fears that their baby would be a “monstrosity” drove some women to seek out abortion. For those who chose to continue with their pregnancy, communication with health professionals was poor and misinformation concerning advised maternal practices and newborn care was common. Often women made intuitive decisions; few attempted to go “cold turkey” and withdrew suddenly from opiates while pregnant, and most new mothers chose to breastfeed—a healthy choice—despite being advised against this. The study revealed the importance of support provided outside of state services and culminated in new information for female drug users and training materials for peer counselors. The participatory process by which these outputs were developed is outlined.

Keywords

pregnancy opiate use female drug users government services Vietnam

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Burns

(2009). Opiate substitution therapy for pregnant drug users: A critical component to supporting maternal, newborn and child health: International practices and lessons for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (Draft report prepared for UNICEF). Unpublished Report.

Chasnoff

I. J.

Landress

H. J.

Barrett

M. E.

(1990). The prevalence of illicit-drug or alcohol use during pregnancy and discrepancies in mandatory reporting in Pinellas County, Florida. New England Journal of Medicine, 322, 1202-1206.

Chavkin

(1990). Drug addiction and pregnancy: Policy crossroads. American Journal of Public Health, 80, 483-487.

Corrarino

J. E.

Williams

Campbell

W. S.

Amrhein

LoPiano

Kalachik

(2000). Linking substance-abusing pregnant women to drug treatment services: A pilot program. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 29, 369-376.

Corse

S. J.

Smith

(1997). Reducing substance abuse during pregnancy: Discriminating among levels of response in a prenatal setting. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 75, 457-467.

De Lind Van Wijngaarden

J. W.

(2007). Assessment of HIV/AIDS vulnerability, responses and STI/HIV prevention, care and support needs of institutionalized children aged 14 to 19 in selected labor and social education institutions and reform schools in Vietnam (Report prepared for UNICEF). Unpublished Report. Retrieved November 2, 2012 from http://www.crin.org/bcn/details.asp?id=12691&themeID=1004&topicID=1025.

French

E. D.

Pituch

Brandt

Pohorecki

(2006). Improving interactions between substance-abusing mothers and their substance-exposed newborns. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 27, 262-269.

Gammeltoft

(2003). The ritualisation of abortion in contemporary Vietnam. Australian Journal of Contemporary Anthropology, 14, 129-143.

Gibbons

Marcus

Muzik

Hamilton

McDonough

Mozurkewich

Treadwell

M. C.

(2010). Partnering for progress: A comprehensive intervention to provide optimal access and comprehensive care to mothers with substance use disorders and their babies. Source, 20(2), 2-6.

10.

Griffiths

(1988). The effects of perinatal cocaine exposure on infant neurobehaviour and early maternal-infant interaction. In Chasnoff

(Ed.), Drugs, alcohol, pregnancy and parenting (pp. 105-113). Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic.

11.

Griffiths

(2006). Confluence and consequence: Globalisation, viscosities and transformation of HIV risk environments in Vietnam (Doctoral dissertation). RMIT University, Melbourne.

12.

Hammett

T. M.

Duc

T. T.

Stephens

Sullivan

Liu

DesJarlais

D. C.

(2007). Social evils and harm reduction: The evolving policy environment for human immunodeficiency virus prevention among injection drug users in China and Vietnam. Addiction, 103, 137-145.

13.

Hanke

P. J.

Faupel

C. E.

(1993). Women opiate users’ perceptions of treatment services in New York City. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 10, 513-522.

14.

Hepburn

(1996). Drug use in pregnancy: Sex drugs and fact “n” fiction. Druglink, 11(July/August), 12-14.

15.

Humphries

(1999). Crack mothers: Pregnancy, drugs, and the media (Women & Health C&S Perspective). Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

16.

Ministry Of Health. (2009). National standard guidelines on reproductive health. Hanoi, Vietnam: Author.

17.

Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs. (2006). Annual report on drug treatment and rehabilitation in 2005. Hanoi, Vietnam: Author. [in Vietnamese only]

18.

Nguyen

V. T.

Scannapieco

(2008). Drug abuse in Vietnam: A critical review of the literature and implications for future research. Addiction, 103, 535-543.

19.

Oosterhoff

Miller

Tran Viet Anh . (2007). Hanoi B93 clubs evaluation. Hanoi, Vietnam: Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA) Hanoi and Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam (MCNV).

20.

Oosterhoff

Nguyen

T. H.

(2006). Reintegrating residents of rehabilitation camps in Northern Vietnam: The Cactus Blossom support group for female ex-IDUs [Exchange Autumn 2006]. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Royal Tropical Institute.

21.

Pelosi

M. A.

Sama

J. C.

Catarini

Kaminetzky

H. A.

(1974). Galactorrhea-amenorrhea syndrome associated with heroin addiction. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 118, 966-970.

22.

Philips

Thomas

Cox

Ricciardelli

L. A.

Ogle

Love

Steele

(2007). Factors that influence women’s disclosure of substance use during pregnancy: A qualitative study of ten midwives and ten pregnant women. Journal of Drug Issues, 37, 357-375.

23.

Pisani

(2008). The wisdom of whores: Bureaucrats, brothels and the business of AIDS. London, England: Granta.

24.

Polan

M. L.

Dombrowski

M. P.

Ager

J. W.

Sokol

R. J.

(1993). Punishing pregnant drug users: Enhancing the flight from care. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 31, 199-203.

25.

Radcliffe

(2011). Motherhood, pregnancy, and the negotiation of identity: The moral career of drug treatment. Social Science & Medicine, 72, 984-991.

26.

Rhodes

(2000). The multiple roles of qualitative research in understanding and responding to illicit drug use. In Fountain

(Ed.), Understanding and responding to drug use: The role of qualitative research (EMCDDA Scientific Monograph Series No. 4, pp. 21-36). Lisbon, Portugal: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

27.

Roberts

S. C. M.

Pies

(2011). Complex calculations: How drug use during pregnancy becomes a barrier to prenatal care. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 15, 333-351.

28.

Royal Women’s Hospital. (2005). Pregnancy and opiates. Victoria, Australia: The Author.

29.

Rutman

Callahan

Lundquist

Jackson

Field

(2000). Substance use and pregnancy: Conceiving women in the policy-making process. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Status of Women Canada. Retrieved from http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/SW21-47-2000E.pdf

30.

Sandmaier

(1980). The invisible alcoholics: Women and alcohol abuse in America. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

31.

Stephens

Arbiter

Glider

(1989). Women residents: Expanding their role to increase treatment effectiveness in substance abuse programs. International Journal of the Addictions, 24, 425-434.

32.

Sweeney

Achwartz

R. M.

Mattis

N. G.

Bohr

(2000). The effect of integrating substance drug abuse treatment with prenatal care on birth outcome. Journal of Perinatology, 4, 219-224.

33.

Tran

T. N.

Detels

Long

H. T.

Lan

H. P.

(2005). Drug use among female sex workers in Hanoi, Vietnam. Addiction, 100, 619-625.

34.

United Nations Office on Drugs Crime. (2010). Prevention, treatment and care for female drug users/injecting drug users and female prisoners in Pakistan (Information Briefs No. 1). Islamabad, Pakistan: UNODC Country Office.

35.

Vijeyarasa

(2010). The state, the family and language of “social evils”: Re-stigmatising victims of trafficking in Vietnam. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 12(Suppl. 1), 89-102.

36.

Weber

A. E.

Tyndall

M. W.

Spittall

P. M.

Coulter

O’Shaugnhessy Schecter

M. T.

(2003). High pregnancy rates and reproductive health indicators among female injection-drug users in Vancouver, Canada. European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care, 8, 52-58.

37.

Winklbaur

Kopf

Ebner

Jung

Thau

Fischer

(2008). Treating pregnant women dependent on opiates is not the same as treating pregnancy and opiate dependence: A knowledge synthesis for better treatment for women and neonates. Addiction Review, 103, 1429-1440.

38.

World Health Organization. (2008). Operational guidelines for the management of opiate dependence in the South-East Asia region. New Delhi, India: WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

8.98 MB

0.00 MB