Join us on 23 September to learn more about how health and social care providers and services can best meet the needs of women who use drugs and the needs of their babies.

The perinatal period is a time when women who use drugs are often keen to engage with treatment and ante-natal services, yet health and social welfare outcomes are highly variable for this group both in the UK and internationally. This one day conference will share findings from The Stepping Stones Study, which ran from October 2021 – April 2024, evaluating the different care models and pathways for pregnant women who use drugs, from early pregnancy to one year after the birth of their baby.

Funded by the NIHR, the study was led by Polly Radcliffe, Senior Research Fellow, Addictions Department, IoPPN, King's College, London, and Professor Helen Cheyne, University of Stirling. It has been a collaboration between researchers at King’s College London, the Universities of Stirling and Huddersfield, and Homerton University Hospital.

The conference is aimed at health and social care practitioners, social care commissioners, policy makers, researchers and women with lived experience. Throughout the day, participants will hear about, reflect and discuss the study findings. This event will also be a unique opportunity to explore and set a new practice and policy agenda for the care of this marginalised group of women in order to improve outcomes both for them and for their children.

The conference will include keynotes from Claudia Garcia Moreno from the World Health Organisation and Kirsty Kitchen from Birth Companions.

During the conference, we will share the findings from our:

• Scoping review of UK best practice and clinical guidelines
• Systematic Review of psychosocial interventions for women who use and are in treatment for using drugs in the perinatal period
• Qualitative, longitudinal study of women's experiences and care pathways in four sites in Scotland and England
• Optimal Model of Care derived from our research findings and coproduced with our Expert Advisory and Coproduction Group

We will offer workshops on using arts-based research techniques.

To close the day, there will be a panel discussion featuring Liz Nolan (Abalour) and Brigid Featherstone.