Maternal opiate use: pregnancy outcome in patients managed by a multidisciplinary approach.

The outcome of 39 pregnancies in 35 pregnant opiate users is reported. These women were managed by a multidisciplinary team resulting in 36 live births, one stillbirth. one spontaneous miscarriage and one induced abortion. The majority of patients were stabilised on methadone before the third trimester. The women were characterised by a high prevalence of previous obstetric and medical problems, 43.6% of the women were single and 87.2% unemployed The mean (SD) gestational age was 38.2 +/- 2.3 weeks, mean (SD) birth weight was 2980 +/- 543 g. There were eight cases of preterm deliveries, all occurred beyond 32 weeks' gestation. One preterm and two term babies had a birth weight below the 10th centile. Thirty-two (86.5%) women had a normal vaginal delivery, seven (10.8%) had caesarean section and one (2.7%) had forceps delivery. Comprehensive antenatal care in conjunction with methadone maintenance appears to result in a pregnancy outcome comparable with a general obstetric population.