CDC Report Shows Significant Increase in Opioid Use Disorder Among Pregnant Women

A recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) included in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) indicated that the number of women with an opioid use disorder (OUD) at labor and delivery quadrupled between 1999 and 2014 in the United States. OUD during pregnancy has been closely associated with adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes, including preterm labor, stillbirth, neonatal abstinence syndrome, and maternal mortality. For every 1,000 delivery hospitalizations in the U.S., OUD prevalence was 1.5 in 1999 and 6.5 in 2014.

California had the lowest average annual rate increase (0.01 per 1,000 delivery hospitalizations per year), while other states such as Maine, New Mexico, Vermont, and West Virginia saw the most significant increases. The CDC report underscores the need for national, state, and provider efforts to prevent, monitor, and treat OUD among reproductive-aged and pregnant women. The full CDC report is available here.