The Center for Addiction Recovery in Pregnancy and Parenting (CARPP) is a multidisciplinary network of experienced clinicians and researchers working together to support recovery from addiction for women who are pregnant and parenting, and to promote healthy growth and development in their children.
CARPP's work informs clinical services, research, education, and advocacy in the treatment of pregnant and parenting women and their young children who are impacted by substance use disorders. We support providers who care for these families with resources and guidance for program implementation, with a particular focus on the impact of opioid use disorders.
Providers with a question about caring for a pregnant or parenting woman with an SUD (or for her newborn/child) can contact the CARPP Q&A line using the contact information at the top of this page.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, whose generous grants were instrumental in the formation of the Center and the ongoing work of the CARPP team.
See the online resources for providers
CARPP question and answer service
CARPP providers are available to answer questions from providers about the care of pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders, as well as their newborns and children. This provider-to-provider service offers education and guidance by phone or email with the goal of increasing our collective capacity to care for this population in the community. CARPP staff, who include women’s health providers, addiction providers, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and social workers, answer questions about:
- Best practices in caring for women and infants/children with perinatal substance exposure
- Dealing with common clinical dilemmas
- Strategies for engaging women in treatment
- Management of opioid-exposed pregnancies
- Management of neonatal abstinence syndrome
- Management of co-occurring psychiatric disorders
- Other topics related to the care of pregnant and parenting women with SUD
Access the question and answer service
Clinical programs
Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in Obstetrics and Gynecology
- All pregnant women are screened for substance use disorders and other behavioral health needs as part of their prenatal care
Dedicated recovery-friendly clinic teams (“Purple Pods”) in Obstetrics and Pediatrics.
- These teams provide continuity of care, support for psychosocial needs, and care-coordination with external community providers
Moms in Recovery outpatient and intensive outpatient programs
- Provide specialty integrated care for pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders
- Offer group and individual addiction treatment, prenatal, postpartum, and well-woman care, psychiatric care, and pediatric care concurrently in the same location
- Provide case management, help accessing community resources, food shelf, diaper bank, and family support (supervision for children) while moms are in treatment
- Co-located hepatitis C treatment clinic will soon be piloted
Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS) management initiatives
- Provide family-centered care for opioid-exposed newborns using the Eating, Sleeping, Consoling model of care, an evidence-based approach that has demonstrated efficacy in significantly decreasing need for pharmacologic treatment and hospital length of stay for infants, while increasing parent & staff satisfaction
Regional quality improvement initiatives
- CARPP researchers lead two regional initiatives via Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network to improve quality and safety in the perinatal care of women with opioid use disorders and their newborns:
- Perinatal Opioid Use Disorder Improvement Collaborative
- Regional initiative to facilitate best practice and reduce harmful variation in maternity care for women with OUD
- Presented at National Institutes of Health’s National Conference on Dissemination and Implementation
- Partnership with National Center for Patient Safety in Women’s Health
- NAS/NOWS Improvement Collaborative
- Regional initiative to improve management of infants with opioid withdrawal
- Collaboration with Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center in testing new therapeutic approaches (Eating, Sleeping, Consoling, “ESC”)