FDA Updating Guidelines on Pregnancy and Drug Use

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The US FDA has launched a campaign to dispel the “myth” that women shouldn’t be taking any medications while pregnant, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“For years, cautious mothers-to-be and their obstetricians thought ‘just say no’ was the most prudent approach to any medication more potent than a cough drop,” reported the Tribune. “But abandoning treatment for chronic health conditions — such as depression, asthma or diabetes — can sometimes affect the baby more than taking a medication while pregnant, experts said.”

The new guidelines will replace a letter-grade system provided to doctors about the safety of drugs for pregnant women. The new guidelines will have several sections, stated the Tribune. “The first gives physicians information on dosing and risks to the fetus. It also indicates whether data has been collected to show the drug’s effects — something never required until now. The second offers what is known about the drug’s impact on breast-feeding, and the final section addresses how the product may affect fertility.”

The article described the existence of a widespread “myth” that women should take no medications while pregnant, and the new movement to dispel this myth. However, the article also noted that, “The change comes at a time when a growing number of women are taking medications during their childbearing years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 90 percent of all women are on at least one prescription or over-the-counter drug, while the use of four or more prescriptions has more than doubled during the past 30 years.”

FDA aims to dispel ‘myth of the medication-free pregnancy’ (Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2015)

12 COMMENTS

    • Scary. I had a half a heart zoloft baby… and so did a friend of mine. And they say drugs are safe? Well they are suing Zoloft in Philadelphia, a class action. I cant join, because I live in Australia. I did a report on Steven’s death 19 years ago, apparently TGA have no record of it, so damn I did another. These pills kill, maim, and they say thats OK? Can have a deformed baby, but is the theory we’ll all be so happily drugged, we dont care?

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  2. The FDA wants women to think that its safe to take antidepressants during pregnancy!? What a ridiculous thing to say when Pfizer is currently all over the media battling lawsuits because they hid evidence that they knew the antidepressant Zoloft caused birth defects.

    Wonder how much the FDA got paid to update these new guidelines.

    The FDA is not worried about the public’s safety. They are in business with the drug companies. I can only hope and pray that these horrific updated guidelines do not become commonly accepted among pregnant women and doctors.

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  3. It is enough to drug toddlers and infants. In the quest to drug every living thing, the psychopharmaceutical industrial complex now reaches into the womb.

    What about drugging plants? Tree? Insects? Fish? Birds?

    For heavens sake, why limit ourselves to drugging human beings when there is so much life that can be destroyed.

    What about drugging the moon, or planets? NASA should get involved so that future colonies on Mars have ready access to prescriptions.

    Drugging children is pure evil. Drugging pregnant women… now that would make the Devil himself tremble.

    Slay the Dragon of Psychiatry.

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    • And despite the fact that children are being drugged at younger and younger ages, literally as soon as they come out of the womb, all that has happened is that rates of depression and everything else has gotten worse. The solution is not to stop and say what is happening when the more we drug and the earlier we drug, the more people get sick and sicker, but instead to just keep doing it earlier and earlier and now we plan on drugging them before they are even conceived, just to make sure they do not have one second even remotely alive without drugs. At the same time the government wonders why we have such huge issues with illicit drugs. When people are taught from even before birth that you cannot live for a second without a drug and the medical profession cannot find one that is a miracle cure for you, people will go and search for one elsewhere.

      Why has it become a criminal offence to feel human emotions??

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  4. I agree, this is horribly wrong.

    And this is just disgusting, “90 percent of all women are on at least one prescription or over-the-counter drug, while the use of four or more prescriptions has more than doubled during the past 30 years.”

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    • I also found that fact disturbing! Apparently most Americans are unaware that medical care is the third leading cause of death in the USA. And don’t forget the increasing evidence of a connection between antidepressant use during pregnancy and “autism spectrum disorders.” The FDA is completely sold out at this point. Disgusting, indeed.

      —- Steve

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