Abstract

Introduction

Birthing people who use substances (BPWUS) face high levels of stigmatization within the healthcare system. This is evident when reviewing provincial policies that govern the standard of care (SOC) for the BPWUS and their newborns. An example of stigmatizing policies within the system is the practice of “birth alerts.” This practice sends an alert to hospitals, from the department of social development, notifying hospital staff of an infant that must be apprehended at birth. While birth alerts were abolished in 2021 by the New Brunswick government, it appeared regional health authorities (RHAs) were continuing to use the practice.

Objective

The objective was to conduct a review of the RHA’s SOC documents related to Maternal and Newborn care to understand factors contributing to the removal of BPWUS in the Parent Child Assistance Program (PCAP) infants from their care in hospital, immediately or soon after the birth. PCAP is a three-year community-based intervention that pairs BPWUS during pregnancy with an advocate to meet goals and, in many cases, reunite with their children.

Outcome

The PCAP research team conducted a scoping review of the RHA’s Maternal and Newborn Standards (MNS) document. Upon review, it was identified the RHA did not update their MNS to reflect changes in government policy related to birth alerts. This resulted in the practice continuing to occur, and exposed BPWUS and their newborns to unnecessary trauma. The PCAP research team drafted a policy brief outlining the issue with birth alerts, and other stigmatizing practices. The brief was presented to the RHA by allied pediatrician’s, resulting in the MNS being updated to reflect the changes proposed by PCAP. This reflects the need for clearer dissemination of policy changes by government to RHA’s, and for RHA’s to develop trigger mechanisms to review and update SOCs when governments change policies.