Ep. 2: Structural Racism in Newborn Drug Testing, feat. Dr. Carol Shetty and Dr. Lauren Oshman (Vol. 22, no. 4)

Black parents and their newborns are more likely to undergo drug testing for prenatal substance exposure by health care professionals, which contributes to Child Protective Services (CPS) reporting, family separation, and termination of parental rights.  In this episode, lead authors Dr. Carol Shetty and Dr. Lauren Oshman discuss their study, “Structural Racism in Newborn Drug Testing: Perspectives of Health Care and Child Protective Services Professionals.” This qualitative study, recently published in the latest issue of Annals of Family Medicine, explored how structural racism affects decisions about newborn drug testing by examining the views and experiences of health care and CPS professionals.

Additional Resources:

• State reporting requirements from If/When/How: Prenatal Drug Exposure and CAPTA
• Doing Right at Birth modules for health care professionals: Doing Right at Birth
• Safe mi coalition: https://safemi.org/