Doctor stigmatizing addict mothers, group says

There is no need to counsel women taking methadone not to become pregnant, says a national group of doctors treating pregnant women with addictions.

'It needs to be a clear and well-informed opinion that the women are getting.' — Dr. Meldon Kahan

PRIMA — the Pregnancy-Related Issues in the Management of Addictions project — criticized P.E.I. pediatrician Dr. Kathy Bigsby for her description of the problems faced by babies who are born dependent on the opiate substitute. "I think it would be wise for a woman taking methadone to be counselled not to become pregnant," Bigsby said.

In a news release last week, PRIMA called that advice misleading. The group said there are no documented long-term effects on babies whose mothers take methadone while pregnant. It added that if treatment is required after birth it is a matter of days, not weeks as Bigsby said.

"The tone and advice of the article is stigmatizing," said PRIMA member Dr. Meldon Kahan.

"It needs to be a clear and well-informed opinion that the women are getting, so that you're not making the women feel guilty or scaring them away by making withdrawal to be so much worse than it really is."

Get pregnant to get treatment?

Julie Dingwell, executive director of AIDS Saint John, also has concerns with the debate. Dingwell said in many cases, women addicted to opiates get pregnant on purpose so they can get into methadone treatment quickly.

"Maybe if we were making it so that addiction treatment, in particular methadone, were more widely available, many of these women wouldn't be getting pregnant," said Dingwell.

When contacted by CBC News, Bigsby stood by her original comments.

"The folks who have concerns about what we said care a lot about the moms that they're taking care of, and that's a really important thing," she said. "But we know that as soon as a woman is pregnant, there are two patients, and we really do have to think about babies."

Kahan said his group has followed hundreds of children born to women on methadone, and they are "just as cute and happy as children anywhere."