Although there is some public interest, in Canada, in maternal use of tobacco and alcohol, and licit drugs which appear to be more harmful than illicit drugs, there has been little public interest in exploring other variables. Exposure to toxic environments, malnutrition, lack of housing, lack of income or poor antenatal care have adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes. If pregnancy outcomes were truly a 'health issue' Canadians might consider eliminating the social environmental variables affecting pregnancy rather than stigmatising a generation of children and their mothers. In Canada, doctors and nurses often inform social services if there is suspected maternal drug use. Thus, the providers of social services and health care participate in policing women.
Many women are afraid to reveal their drug use, whether licit or illicit.
One must question the medical scientific community's interest in the developing fetus. Their assumption that this interest benefits society -is suspect. Mothers are often absent from the discussion which focuses on the fetus and fetal harm. When mothers are included, their failure to mother is emphasised, and regulations and legal sanctions have been suggested to curb their behaviour. Liberal and conservative paradigms limit the questions asked and the areas researched, ignoring and obscuring deeper issues of social control, sex, class and race.