Drug Testing in Pregnancy and Parenting Part I: The Scientific Basics

This resource is from Pregnancy Justice and Doing Right by Birth.

Drug testing during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and on newborns can have profound legal consequences for pregnant people and their families. It lacks scientific and legal standards, lacks a clear relationship to patient care or parental and infant outcomes, and acts as a form of race-based surveillance and a tool for family separation. Eliminating routine drug testing during labor and delivery care is one step toward advancing systemic changes needed to improve health outcomes for parents and babies, keep families together, and work toward eradicating systemic racism in medical settings.

This resource from Pregnancy Justice and Doing Right by Birth focuses on the scientific basics, inequities, and legal consequences of drug testing in pregnancy and parenting.