Prescribing change, expecting more
Keeping the risk of seizures down is primarily why women with epilepsy take anti-epileptic drugs. When pregnancy is put into the equation, they’re often unsure what to do with their regular medication. Should there be a trade off between the benefits of not having seizures and the fear of what impact these drugs might have on their unborn child? If…
Read more > Anti-epileptic drugs & baby’s development: should a mom have to choose?
For young women facing chemotherapy as part of a range of treatments for breast cancer, the question of fertility post-treatment is of particular concern. But the results of a phase III clinical trial mean that women might be able to have their cancer treated, and still go on to have children. Watch the video interview with Dr. Halle Moore The…
Research published in May 2014 revealed considerable numbers of expectant mothers are taking opioid painkillers. Just overa fifth of the 1.1 million pregnant women enrolled in the US social healthcare program Medicaid received a prescription for these drugs in 2007. These figures represent an 18.5% increase overthe number of prescriptions of opioids dispensed to pregnant women back in 2000. However,…
What would you endure to have a baby? Before her son was born, Helen Broadley (not her real name) was battling Rheumatoid Arthritis and it took her two years to conceive, suffering a miscarriage along the way. Instead of feeling excitement at the positive pregnancy test, she and her husband spent much of the pregnancy worrying about how her condition…
According to a paper published by US academics in March 2014, pregnant women taking antidepressants are more likely to have their child prematurely. If these findings are accurate, then that’s a concern because of the sheer number of people taking these kinds of drugs. A report published back in 2011 found that 23% of women in their 40s and 50s…
Read more > Antidepressant usage in pregnancy hits the headlines
This is a story of one woman, Liz Joice, who thought she could never have a child because she had been treated for cancer in her early 30s. But then, she became pregnant, and one month into that pregnancy her cancer returned. Liz and her partner faced the impossible decision: conduct a full MRI scan to find out the full…
Read more > Choosing between mom or baby: one mother’s tragic story
There are no clear-cut answers about using chemotherapy to treat cancer in pregnant women – and current advice is usually given on a case-by-case basis. But the fact that doctors do use chemotherapy to treat certain cancers in mothers-to-be today stems from studies started 40 years ago, in Mexico. In 1973, Dr. Agustin Aviles, a doctor working in the public…
