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A residential treatment program has been developed specifically for substance‐abusing pregnant and parenting women in Finland, focusing on simultaneously supporting maternal abstinence from substances and the mother–baby relationship. The aims of the study are to explore maternal pre‐ and postnatal reflective functioning and its association with background factors, maternal exposure to trauma, and psychiatric symptoms, postnatal interaction, child development, and later child foster care placement. Participants were 34 mother–baby pairs living in three residential program units during the pre‐ to postnatal period. We employed self‐report questionnaires on background, trauma history, and psychiatric symptoms (Brief Symptom Inventory: L.R. Derogatis, 1993; Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale: J.L. Cox, J.M. Holden, & R. Sagovsky, 1987; Traumatic Antecedents Questionnaire: B. Van der Kolk, 2003 …