ABSTRACT
This chapter will explore the views about pregnant drug users that have emerged from interviews with health care providers involved in maternity or neonatal care across north-west England. Research suggests (Davis, 1990; Lewis et al., 1995) that drug users’ willingness to approach health care services can be influenced by expectations and experience of the attitudes to drug use that they encounter among the practitioners they meet. The experiences of our pregnant drug users that are documented in earlier chapters have revealed a number of stressors arising from their interactions with staff. Those responsible for their care now provide their own perspectives on drug-using mothers. We try to present a balanced view of the attitudes of our professional informants, reporting accounts of members of a range of professions – obstetrics, paediatrics, midwifery, drug and social work – and noting the contrasts that occur among them.
