As a labor and delivery nurse, I have seen first-hand the devastating effects of untreated substance use disorders (SUD) and mental illnesses in pregnancy and postpartum-- as one of the many ways our healthcare system fails to support and care for these moms and babies.
As I began working more closely with diverse patient populations, I realized how often behavioral health issues and other social influencers go unaddressed. I once took care of a young woman struggling with cocaine addiction admitted to the hospital in preterm labor. She explained that she had stopped attending her prenatal appointments after the first trimester due to intimate partner violence and the chaos it caused in her home life.