The primary objective of the National Pregnancy and Health

Survey (NPHS) was to produce national annual estimates of the

percentages and numbers of mothers of live newborns in the United

States who used selected licit and illicit drugs in the 12 months

prior to delivery. A further objective was to describe patterns of

prenatal substance use among demographic subgroups of

women. Information on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics,

obstetric history, and drug treatment of women who delivered infants

at sampled hospitals was obtained through an interviewer-administered

questionnaire, while data on substance use before and during pregnancy

were collected through a questionnaire completed by the respondent and

concealed from the interviewer. Respondents were asked about use of

the following substances: alcohol, amphetamines, analgesics, cocaine,

crack cocaine, barbiturates, hallucinogens, hashish, heroin,

marijuana, methadone, methamphetamine, sedatives, stimulants, tobacco,

and tranquilizers. Additionally, information was collected on the

respondent's pregnancy, prenatal care, delivery, previous pregnancies,

and background. Additional data were obtained from the mothers' and

infants' medical records. Urine specimens collected routinely by the

hospital on obstetric admissions were tested for selected

drugs. Finally, in a subsample of six hospitals, hair specimens were

requested from respondents to evaluate the potential of hair as a

source of toxicological data in future studies.This study has 1 Data Set.