Methadone treatment programs for a pregnant woman with heroin addiction is essential for improving the health of the expecting mother as well as for protecting her unborn child. Mothers undergoing methadone treatment receives regulated and monitored doses of the opiate instead of the ‘sporadic opiate levels' of the particular opiate addict. Methadone clinics offering effective methadone treatment aims at relieving the mother of her addiction so as to improve infant outcome. However it is not very comfortable for a newborn baby to cope up with abrupt methadone withdrawal and so professional assistance is a must.

The highly trained professionals of the methadone clinics adopt a specific treatment program after considering the degree as well as severity of methadone withdrawal. The infant is kept under observation in a methadone clinic so as to study the specific signs and symptoms which is likely to appear within twenty four to forty eight hours. In rare cases it takes more than 120 hours to note the physical symptoms of withdrawal in the baby. Nurses usually document the behavior of the infant after every four hours. If the newborn baby receives high score of NAS i.e. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, the baby will receive prescribed morphine, known for relieving withdrawal symptoms. However doses of morphine often cause profound irritability, skin breakdown, and gastrointestinal issues.

In this condition when the infant is suffering from withdrawal symptoms it is very difficult to feed him. The newborn baby may also suffer from high fever. A dose of morphine which is usually given every four hours during nursing assessment as well as NAS scoring is tapered when the withdrawal symptoms seem to be on decline.

 Methadone which is a synthetic opiate can be easily regulated as well as controlled. It is effecting in helping the addicts to wean off their addiction to heroin. When a baby is born of a woman who has been using methadone for a prolonged period of time, the baby's supply of methadone which had been crossing the placenta allowing the baby in the womb to use the drug for all the nine months is suddenly discontinued. To avoid sudden withdrawal, opiate has to be weaned slowly thus enabling the baby to adjust without it.

 If the methadone or heroin exposure is small i.e. for a short duration oftime the baby will show mild symptoms however if the ‘in-utero exposure to opiates' has been continued for a longer span of time doses of morphine will help to wean the baby from dependence on the specific drug. Phenobarbital which is a part of this addiction treatment helps in soothing the baby's ‘central nervous system'.