# Public Policy & Health for Substance Exposed Infant-Mother Dyads

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STORRS · 2023 · $154,444

## Abstract

Prenatal substance exposure is a significant public health problem affecting 10% of infants (over 360,000 in
2020). Criminal justice-oriented policies enacted to protect these newborns are associated with negative
consequences for both the mother and infant, suchas lower rates of maternal substanceuse treatment utilization
in pregnancy, higher rates of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) diagnoses at birth, and
disproportionately higher child protective services (CPS) referral rates for Black and Indigenous infants. On the
other hand, states without substance-exposed infant policy lack infrastructure for systematic responses to
support these families. In 2016, the primary U.S. child welfare policy—the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment
Act (CAPTA)—was amended to increase mother-infant health and substance use treatment utilization while
ensuring infant safety by mandating that all dyads receive a plan of safe care. Seeking to protect dyads from
intensive surveillance and threat of foster care placement, in 2019 Connecticut became the only state to use a
“masked” approach that requires plans be developed by community providers with perinatal mothers without
disclosing their identifiable information to CPS.
 Dr. Margaret Lloyd Sieger is one of a small handful of researchers in the U.S. working to identify how public
health policy can increase health and safety for substance exposed infant-mother dyads. Her preliminary
research in Connecticut indicates that providers are developing plans with mothers. With this K01 award and
support from three state agencies, two large birthing hospitals, and a multidisciplinary mentorship team of
national experts, Dr. Lloyd Sieger will apply a theory of health services utilization to examine the effect of plans
of safe care on: (1) substance use treatment utilization, (2) child safety, and (3) racial disparities in CPS
involvement. The proposed project will achieve its aims using innovative, scientifically rigorous approaches to
linking three state administrative databases and recruiting mothers at the time they develop a plan of safe care
for a longitudinal survey. This K01 award will provide Dr. Lloyd Sieger with training and experience in: (1)
pertinent, multisystem clinical issues, (2) longitudinal survey research with perinatal mothers, (3) statistical
methods for multi-system data linkage and multilevel analysis, and (4) collaborations for multi-site, multi-state
research. This award will also lead to an R01 proposal to conduct a multi-site, multi-state study on plans of safe
care, thereby addressing NIDA’s priorities to understand effective policies that prevent child welfare system
involvement for mothers with substance use disorders and infants with prenatal substance exposure. Finally,
this award will set the foundation for Dr. Lloyd Sieger’s productive, independent program of research that
integrates substance use epidemiology, policy, and clinical interventions to improve outcomes for pregnant ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10643277
- **Project number:** 1K01DA058060-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STORRS
- **Principal Investigator:** Margaret Lloyd Sieger
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $154,444
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-06-15 → 2028-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10643277

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10643277, Public Policy & Health for Substance Exposed Infant-Mother Dyads (1K01DA058060-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10643277. Licensed CC0.

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