In Canada, there have been several cases where ministries of social services have apprehended the unborn fetus. Yet, what is of concern for women is that the apprehensions occurred when a mother failed to comply with medical advice or when social workers believed their client to be unfit to care for her pregnancy and unborn child. These attempts at fetal apprehension are precedent setting in their implications for all women. The history of the medical treatment of women in Canada emphasises the continuing struggle by women to define their own experience of pregnancy, birthing, menopause and health, and their struggle to regain legal access to midwives, birth control and abortion, to limit sterilisation and to have choices about delivery. Since the 1980s there has been a proliferation of research and interest by the medical community in the developing fetus and infants born to women who use illicit drugs.
Medical research claims that maternal drug use can cause a wide range of symptoms.
The image presented by medical researchers and the media is often one of the white male doctor holding a premature infant - a separate entity from the mother. Often we are informed that the child is suffering from withdrawal symptoms which may include tremors, a high-pitched cry and arching of the back. Nevertheless, the effects of maternal drug use continue to be controversial. Much of the research on maternal drug use is from the USA where there are few socio economic supports. For example, in the USA universal health care is not available and the level of poverty is much higher than in Canada.