Pregnancy outcomes in substance-misusing pregnant women: A 10-year retrospective study

Abstract

In this ten-year retrospective study we were able to show that Maltese substance-misusing mothers (SMMs) have significantly different socio-biological characteristics from mothers in the general population which seem to impact on neonatal outcomes. Significant differences from the general population were noted in the SMM's age, age at first pregnancy, marital status, educational background, number of cigarettes smoked, number of offspring and weight gained in pregnancy. SMMs booked their pregnancy in hospital later than the general population. On the other hand their infants had a lower mean birth weight and head circumference, had lower Apgar scores, were of lesser gestational age and premature. They were less breast-fed and stayed longer in hospital after their birth.

Keywords::

• Pregnancy
• methadone
• substance misuse
• Malta

Acknowledgments

Thanks are given to the personnel working on the National Obstetric Information System (NOIS) register for access to the database.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.