Overview:
Many pregnant women take prescription medications during pregnancy as a necessity (such as: diabetes, epilepsy, depression, anxiety, and other medical conditions), and some pregnant women may take medications to help with common health problems months of pregnancy (such as: heartburn or morning nausea or headache), in most cases there are different types of medication to treat a particular problem; So, the doctor may change the type of medication while reducing any risk to the fetus.
Classifications of drug risk factors:
Each drug has a rating along with an assessment of risks and benefits of using a particular drug during pregnancy; Where the categories of drugs are classified for pregnant women:
Category A: Studies have not found or shown any risk or evidence of harm.
Category B: Animal studies have not shown any risks, but there are no studies in pregnant women.
Category C: Animal studies have shown risk to the fetus, but there are no controlled studies in pregnant women, or studies in women and animals are not available.
Category D: There is positive evidence of potential risk to the fetus, but the benefits of use in pregnant women may be acceptable despite the risk.
Category X: Studies in animals or humans have shown fetal abnormalities, or there is evidence of fetal risk.
Note: Category C is the confusing category. A drug gets this classification if there are insufficient data on its use during pregnancy, as it may be safe or it may be harmful.
Recommendations:
Do not start or stop taking medication during pregnancy without consulting your doctor. There are some steps to help make sure you take care of it properly:
- Always consult a doctor, as this is the first and most important step.
- Read the label; Look for pregnancy warnings, potential allergies, and expiration dates.
- Pay attention to side effects; This is by consulting a health care provider or pharmacist about possible side effects, as some medicines cause side effects (such as: drowsiness, headache, or vomiting).
- Organize medicines and do not mix medicines to avoid overdose.
- Take medications as prescribed by your health care provider.
- Do not share medicines.
- Ask questions about safety of the medicine for the child, ask about the name of the medicine, generic alternatives, benefits, risks, and problems to watch for.
- Keep a record of medications taken.