ONLINE LEARNING series
Supporting Pregnant, Postpartum, & Parenting People in Custody
This learning series provides correctional professionals with practical guidance and resources to better support individuals in custody who are pregnant, postpartum, or parenting, and navigating opioid use disorder (OUD). Organized into two main sections, it highlights the unique health and safety needs of pregnant and postpartum people with OUD and offers tools to strengthen family connections for incarcerated parents with OUD. The series includes evidence-based strategies, policy insights, and program examples designed to promote dignity, improve care, and foster positive outcomes for both parents and children.
Pregnant & Postpartum People in Custody
Providing clinical and implementation guidance for jails to provide evidence-based, patient-centered care for pregnant and postpartum people with opioid use disorder.
MOMCARE stands for Maternal Opioid Use Disorder Management and CAre REsources in Custody. This initiative equips correctional facilities with practical guidance and evidence-based strategies to improve care for pregnant and postpartum people affected by opioid use disorder. We’ve highlighted a selection of their resources here, but please visit the MOMCARE website for additional tools, training, and insights.
Resources for Staff
This resource offers sample scripts to help jail staff communicate effectively and respectfully with pregnant patients who have opioid use disorder. The scripts demonstrate appropriate tone and language for patient interactions, supporting stigma reduction and non-judgmental communication.
This one-page resource provides essential information for correctional staff on opioid use during pregnancy and the role of medication-assisted treatment (MAT), offering key points to support safe, consistent, and informed care for pregnant and postpartum women in custody.
This document provides vital information for custody officers on how to manage issues they may encounter with pregnant and postpartum patients with OUD in custody, including when to call medical or refer for a higher level of care, and what to do until they arrive.
This tool is a brief, structured checklist designed to guide jail clinical staff in assessing and supporting pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder.
This document provides guidelines for recognizing and responding to urgent maternal warning signs in pregnant and postpartum women in custody to ensure their safety and well-being.
This document outlines how to recognize signs of preterm and full-term labor in pregnant women and highlights when immediate medical evaluation and transport are needed in a correctional setting.
This webpage provides tips on data collection and evaluation for jail-based medication-assisted treatment services for pregnant patients, including an Excel spreadsheet that can be used to track patient data.
Reentry Checklist for Pregnant and Postpartum Patients
This resource provides a discharge planning checklist tailored for reentry staff working with pregnant and postpartum patients, particularly those with opioid use disorder. It highlights their time-sensitive medical and support needs and helps ensure connections to prenatal care, substance use treatment, and community resources upon release.
subject areas include:
OUD in pregnancy & postpartum needs
Pregnancy & postpartum care needs
Basic needs
Health & treatment needs
Legal considerations
Preparing a Model Jail Pregnancy Policy Checklist
This resource emphasizes the importance of having a formal jail policy for pregnant and postpartum individuals, including those with opioid use disorder, to ensure consistent, guideline-informed care. It outlines key elements that should be included in such a policy and provides a checklist to help facilities evaluate whether their current practices meet recommended standards for treatment, custody procedures, and reentry planning.
Resources for Patients
One-Pager: Treatment for OUD During Pregnancy & Postpartum
This resource provides pregnant and postpartum women with key information about opioid use disorder (OUD), including the effects of opioid use during pregnancy and the safety of medications like methadone and buprenorphine. It offers clear, evidence-based guidance to support informed decisions and promote maternal and infant health throughout treatment and recovery.
Which Medication is Right for Me and My Baby?
This overview presents safe, evidence-based treatment options for pregnant and postpartum women with OUD, including methadone and buprenorphine. It explains what to expect with Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS), emphasizes the importance of staying on prescribed treatment during custody, and highlights the need for continuity of care to support long-term health.
Parenting While in Custody
Model Practices for Parents in Prisons and Jails
This document, from the National Institute of Corrections and the US Bureau of Justice Assistance, helps educate and address challenges that incarcerated parents face as well as their children. It offers best practices surrounding mitigating the stress and frustration of parent-child contact. Constructive visitations and communication, parenting classes, caregiver support, and family-focused reentry have proven to have clear benefits.
This free learning center was designed specifically for fathers who are incarcerated. It provides a large selection of eBooks, videos, and other resources covering skill-building and topics such as processing feelings related to parental incarceration, healthy communication with children, fathering from the inside, and positive coparenting relationships.
National Fatherhood Initiative: Inside Out Dad
Nurturing Parenting Programs
Nurturing Parenting® is a family-centered trauma-informed initiative designed to build Nurturing Parenting® skills as an alternative to abusive and neglecting parenting and child-rearing practices.
This site provides training workshops, certification pathways, and a full catalog of evidence-based materials for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Use the links below to find certified trainers, explore upcoming workshops, or order program tools tailored to diverse family needs.
Parenting Inside Out
A cognitive-behavioral parenting skills training program developed for parents who are incarcerated, this program focuses on equipping parents with skills in communication and problem-solving as well as techniques for positive reinforcement and nonviolent discipline.
Attachment Vitamins: Course on Early Childhood Attachment, Stress, and Trauma
Attachment Vitamins is an interactive, self-paced e-learning course for those adults who often find themselves in the company of children aged zero to five and their families, including professionals such as early childhood educators and child care providers, public health workers, nurses and other medical providers, and case managers; and also for the caregivers of young children themselves.
During the course's nine modules, participants will learn about early childhood social-emotional development; the impact of stress and trauma; reflect on the possible meanings of children’s behaviors; explore the influence of culture on families' socialization goals; and become familiar with a number of strategies aimed to promote secure attachment and safe socialization practices.