0 Medicating yourself and the unborn

Usually you find out about this stuff from those lawyer ads on TV—if you took this drug, your baby may have problems, that sort of thing.

Melinda Beck, writes about pass-throughs in the WSJ. Mar 29, 2011. Some anti-psychotics (Haldol, Zyprexa), pain relievers (oxy, vicodin), asthma drugs (terbutaline), and some others are thought to be dangerous to the fetus.

But hard evidence is lacking—because it’s iffy to test on pregnant women.

But--Some conditions just can’t go untreated for nine months—including high BP, asthma, epilepsy, and some others. What if the mother had an asthma attack and the baby did not get enough oxygen?

So now the FDA is considering labels that weight the benefits and risks—and say whether these are based on hard evidence or not.

Drug companies are setting up registries to track experiences.

In the meantime, mothers and doctors take it case by case.

Pretty much everything crosses the placenta and in doses that could be significant for the smaller being that is the fetus.

It’s a chance you have to take sometimes, though. It can be an educated chance, but it is a chance.