Pregnancy

The image of the pregnant and parenting drug-using woman has been used for many purposes in our society. Those images actually serve to hurt the women and families that many of us work to support. This can also cause us to carry our own prejudices that can hinder our own best practices and bring about personal stress in our places of employment. This workshop will examine those images, our own prejudices, and we will begin to look at some solutions to avoid buying into common myths and personal beliefs (sometimes from our own histories). By doing this examination, we can better assist women who are struggling with drug use while being pregnant and/or parenting. This workshop will also look at the broader policy implications that focus on supporting pregnant drug-using women instead of criminalizing or shaming their behavior.

People working in the field of family law and child-welfare often have cases that involve issues of drug use.