Loading...
Date Completed
Spring 2026
Abstract
The opioid epidemic has influenced the health and wellbeing of pregnant and parenting mothers across the United States. Paralleling the influence is a concurrent rise in infants and babies prenatally exposed to opioids in utero. Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS) is the collection of symptoms children prenatally exposed to substances present with postnatally. The influences of NOWS leaves lasting impacts on the developing brain, thus increasing a child’s chance of experiencing developmental challenges throughout childhood. Family-centered residential substance recovery centers offer promising supports for pregnant and parenting mothers in substance recovery as well as their children, however, the frameworks lack pediatric-directed habilitation services for children with NOWS. Occupational therapy (OT), a rehabilitative discipline centralized in improving function and wellbeing across the lifespan, may serve to bridge this developmental gap. Critical care windows of pediatric development during the first three years of a child’s life are pivotal for optimizing developmental change; OT is a promising contributing discipline to do so within the context of residential recovery
Keywords: Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS), occupational therapy (OT), prenatal opioid exposure, maternal-infant dyad, habilitation, family-centered residential substance recovery, Cynthia Day Family Center (CDFC)
Document Type
Capstone
First Advisor
Casey Rabideau
Second Advisor
Elizabeth Cox
College or School
CHHS
Department or Program
Occupational Therapy
Recommended Citation
Mahoney, Maggie Marie, "A Tiered Approach to Infant Habilitation: Addressing Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS)" (2026). OTD Capstones. 9.
https://scholars.unh.edu/otd_capstones/9