Volume 1
Number 1 January 2017Drugs and Pregnancy: A Careful Concern for Mother and Child
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70357/jdamc.2017.v0101.07
Pramanik D1 , Khanom S2 , Begum P3 , Ahmed S4
Abstract
Drugs used during pregnancy may have temporary or permanent effects on the fetus. More than 90% of pregnant women takeprescription or nonprescription (over-the-counter)drug.About 2% to 3% of all birth defects result from the use of drugs duringpregnancy. However, drugs are sometimes inevitable for the wellbeing of the pregnant women and fetus. In everyday practice,the healthcare professionals are very much concern about the safety of a drug to be prescribed in pregnancy. Pregnancy Indexwill be a good reference of different drugs to be prescribed in pregnancy by physicians with confidence. Drugs can impairintrauterine growth by interfering with fetal metabolic processes. This may take the form of a simple inhibition of essentialpathways, such as the utilization of folic acid, or may involve more complex alterations in genetic structure and expression.Fetal death and abortion can be caused by drugs.If drugs are given during the stage of organogenesis structural damage to thefetus may result. Preconception counseling and education regarding drugs will become increasingly important. It is importantto screen systematically for such concerns as early as possible in pregnancy. Preconception planning only rarely provides anopportunity to identify exposures of concern as example. Oral hypoglycemic agents should be changed before pregnancy intoinjection insulin; any antihypertensive drugs should be changed as methyldopa, nidifine, labetolol. Anaemia should becorrected before pregnancy
Keywords: Drug, Congenital malformation, Teratogens
- Professor & Head, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
- Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
- Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
- Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology