Many pregnant women take prescription medications that harm baby

Added 05.03.2010

Eighty-three percent of UK women take at least one pharmaceutical drug during pregnancy

A few years ago the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children by the University of Bristol revealed that 83% of pregnant women used at least one pharmaceutical drug during some part of their pregnancy. This is a shockingly large percentage given the fact that many medications are known to harm the growing foetus. In fact, the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, advise pregnant women to avoid all pharmaceutical drugs - unless their doctors think it is absolutely crucial.

A new study from Canada tells us that many women today are still taking harmful prescription drugs. In the study, 6,871 out of 109,344 pregnant women took at least one of the prescription drugs that are known to be harmful to foetuses. These cause among other things, serious birth defects or premature birth. Some of these include:

• Isotretinoin (acne and rosacea).
• Anxiolytic benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety).
• Anti-epileptics.
• Trimethoprim (antibiotic).
• Statins (cholesterol-lowering medications).
• Hypertension medications.
• Anticoagulants (blood thinners).

Some non-prescription medications may also be harmful to the foetus, such as: paracetamol; ibuprofen; aspirin; cold/flu and cough medications; diarrhoea or constipation medications.

References:

Dr. Bo Nielsen's comments:

This study reveals that 83% of pregnant women take one or more synthetic pharmaceutical drugs that may harm the foetus/baby or increase the risk of pregnancy complications. Above you can find a list of drugs you should not take, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Unless a pharmaceutical drug has been proven to be safe, you should avoid it, unless you have a serious medication-demanding disease. A group of commonly used drugs that are often considered harmless are the so-called NSAIDs (also called painkillers). These include more than 20 types of drugs including: aceclofenac, acemetacin, celecoxib, dexibuprofen, dexketoprofen, diclofenac, diflunisal, etodolac, etoricoxib, fenbrufen, fenoprofen, flurbiprofen, ibuprofen, indomethacin, lumiracoxib, ketoprofen, mefanamic acid, meloxicam, nabumetone, naproxen, piroxicam, sulindac, tenoxicam, and tiaprofenic acid. Each of these are also manufactured under different brand names.

These commonly used drugs increase the risk of miscarriage by up to 80% and increase the risk of birth defects and pregnancy complications, just to name a few. It is important to realise that certain nutritional supplements actually increase the chance of having a healthy baby and a normal pregnancy. These include high quality vitamins, minerals and grape seed extract.