Prescribing change, expecting more
There needs to be more government funding into pregnancy and medication research programs, according to Dr. Steve Caritis, one of the leading doctors in this field in the US. The lack of information in this field, he believes, frequently puts women at risk. “Almost none of the medications used by pregnant women have been studied in pregnancy,” Dr. Caritis told…
Read more > Research addresses knowledge gap in medication and pregnancy
Did your cancer diagnosis change your life priorities? Faces of Courage and Hope tells a positive story of how chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of the white blood cells, changes lives in a series of photo stories. The recently published book depicts the inspiring journey of 16 European CML patients, including a Portuguese woman’s experience through two pregnancies. The…
Read more > Tough decisions, positive outcomes: cancer & life priorities
Many women suffering from a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, control their condition using antipsychotic drugs. But if a woman taking this type of medication wants to have a baby, there aren’t many standard answers from the medical community as to what’s the best thing to do. Whether or not a woman continues to take her medication…
Read more > A confusing state: treating mental illness during pregnancy
Questions surrounding drug use and pregnancy don’t start just when a woman is expecting a child. There are also healthcare professionals and academics thinking about treatment at an earlier stage: how medication can affect the chance of a woman conceiving. In April 2014, one group of scientists published research on how regular low-dose aspirin affects a woman’s chance to get…
Read more > Low doses of aspirin could help some women conceive
Behind the complex web of ethics, legislation and emotion that surrounds drug use during pregnancy are many personal stories. And sometimes, it’s easy to forget that for every academic, theoretical debate over whether or not to treat a pregnant patient, there’s a real person at the center of this discussion. But there are places that celebrate these women and the…
