• St LouisJoshuaJ0000-0001-7201-7512Lawrence Family Medicine Residency, Lawrence, MA, United States., Tyler Barreto, Melina Taylor, Claire Kane, Emma Worringer, and Aimee R Eden.
• Lawrence Family Medicine Residency, Lawrence, MA, United States.
• Fam Pract. 2022 Mar 24; 39 (2): 249-256.

BackgroundWhile barriers to care for pregnant patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) have been described, the experiences and challenges of the physicians providing care to these patients are poorly understood.ObjectivesTo describe the experiences of family physicians providing comprehensive care to pregnant people with OUD and the challenges they face in providing such care.MethodsQualitative thematic analysis of 17 semistructured interviews conducted from July 2019 to September 2020 with family physicians who possess a Drug Enforcement Administration "X" waiver and provide care to pregnant patients.ResultsSeventeen family physicians practicing in the United States who care for pregnant people with OUD were interviewed. They described physician-, patient-, and systems-level barriers to providing and accessing care for this patient population. Of the 12 interrelated themes regarding challenges to delivering and accessing this care, 3 were particularly salient: the pervasive effects of social determinants of health, a lack of adequately trained providers, and social stigma associated with pregnant people with OUD.ConclusionA comprehensive, multilevel, and multidisciplinary approach is necessary to address these barriers and move towards health equity for this vulnerable patient population.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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