Pregnancy can be a powerful motivator for parents to seek support and address SUD challenges. All providers need to understand the complexity of a parent's social, environmental, mental, and physical conditions to provide support throughout pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting.
Prenatal SUD Care Teams can play an integral role in preventing child welfare involvement at the time of birth by supporting gestational parents' understanding of the Plan of Safe Care goals and process and encouraging families to engage in supportive services and resources prior to the birth of the child. If desired by the family, Prenatal SUD Care Teams can navigate gestational parents to birthing hospitals with Centers of Excellence for Perinatal Substance Use certification. The Centers of Excellence for Perinatal Substance Use is a new certification program created by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA), and the Washington Health Care Authority (HCA). This certificate recognizes hospitals for providing outstanding birth care for gestational parents with a substance use disorder and acknowledges the significant progress of birthing hospitals in Washington.