The methadone-maintained pregnancy.

Methadone treatment during pregnancy offers overwhelming advantages compared with the less acceptable option of medical detoxification or the unacceptably dangerous option of leaving heroin-addicted women dependent on street drugs. General agreement exists that pregnancy offers a unique opportunity to bring women into medical, obstetric, and drug treatment. Methadone maintenance in the setting of comprehensive service provision during pregnancy reduces maternal morbidity and mortality and promotes fetal stability and growth. With an accumulated experience of over 25 years, methadone maintenance has been shown to be an invaluable and often an essential ingredient in bettering the health of women during pregnancy, in improving the outcomes of those pregnancies, and in offering opiate-addicted women a chance to improve both their lives and the lives of their families.