Breaking Pregnancy Taboos recently hit a milestone with the creation of our advisory board. We are proud to introduce the first four advisory board members, each one having shown a keen interest or expertise in the field of pregnancy and medication. We welcome Dr. Frédéric Amant, Head of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Leuven; Dr. Aparna Kamat, an…
Digging deeper: how the OPRU is uncovering pregnancy taboos
There’s no question that healthcare professionals and mothers-to-be have many questions when it comes to taking medicines during pregnancy. So who’s breaking new ground in the search for answers to these questions? The Obstetric-Fetal Pharmacology Research Units Network is one organization. It’s a network of sites across four US universities that investigate the effects of drugs in pregnant and breastfeeding…
Read more > Digging deeper: how the OPRU is uncovering pregnancy taboos
Reading the small print: drug labeling and pregnancy
When it comes to drug labeling, the small print is vitally important. It tells us what to expect when we take a medicine. It reminds us of who should take it, and how often, and what to do if something goes wrong. And there’s an important regulatory side to it as well: pharma firms have to make sure that their…
Read more > Reading the small print: drug labeling and pregnancy
International Meeting on Cancer & Pregnancy: closing the information gap
What advice should be given to a pregnant woman with cancer? As we try to close the information gap around this subject and call for a centralization of expertise on this subject, events like the International Meeting on Cancer and Pregnancy, which was held at the end of November 2013, are essential. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQHLjqqvaU4 It is possible to treat cancer during…
Read more > International Meeting on Cancer & Pregnancy: closing the information gap
Treating epilepsy in pregnancy
Epilepsy and pregnancy. Not an impossible combination, but certainly a difficult one. It’s also rare – according to research from 1999 only 0.5% of all pregnancies occur in epileptic women – but it is this very scarcity of cases that causes epilepsy in pregnant women to be under-researched. As it stands, the advice for mothers-to-be suffering from epilepsy is mixed.…
Are anti-malarials safe in pregnancy?
A lot of women across the world are lucky. If they don’t live in regions where diseases like malaria are endemic, then they don’t need to worry about infection and treatment while they’re pregnant. These women don’t have to think about whether or not anti-malarial drugs will affect their unborn child, they just follow the advice of institutions like the…
Rare cancers in pregnancy – what should a doctor do?
There’s growing research into the role of the placenta as a “filter,” protecting unborn children from the effects of cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy. But most of the research out there focuses on more common types of cancer. But what happens when a pregnant woman is diagnosed with a more unusual type of cancer? Such as one affecting the blood?…
Read more > Rare cancers in pregnancy – what should a doctor do?
