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| Home > Nutrition and Health > Medication during pregnancy
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| | Medication during pregnancy
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Herbal Teas
 Hundreds of herbs are available commercially as herbal teas. Herbal teas are said to have various curative or restorative properties, helpful for most discomforts. However, their effects on the fetus are not well studied. The active ingredients of the herbal teas that produce the benefits have not been properly identified. Herbs are also known to cause undesirable side effects in some adults. For instance, teas made from juniper berries, buckthorn bark, senna leaves, duck roots and aloe can irritate the stomach and intestinal tract, sometimes severely. Drinking camomile tea can trigger allergic reactions in some people allergic to rag-weed and related plants. A popular ingredient of tea -licorice root, if used in large quantities, leads to water retention and loss of potassium.
Sassafras root contains safrole known to cause liver cancer in rats. The Food and Drug Administration recently ruled that safrole is unsafe for human consumption. Another herb, Ginseng con-tains small amounts of estrogen. Swollen and painful breasts have been reported after its use. These ingredients almost certainly reach the fetus and affect the baby at least as much as they do the mother. You should use herbs with caution because their risks and benefits have not been studied properly.
Medicines
 Drugs such as aspirin, acetaminophen, sedatives and tran-quilizers, antihistamines, antacids and antiemetics (to control nausea and vomiting) are widely used during pregnancy. These drugs do relieve the symptoms such as pain, headache, nervousness, sleeplessness, runny nose, heartburn and nausea. However, they do not cure the illness. Medications, such as an-tibiotics, insulin and steroids either cure or control an illness. The benefits of these drugs are surely greater than those drugs that merely relieve symptoms. Medication is advisable only when the benefits greatly outweigh the potential risks. Your parents, physician will advise you on the judicious intake of medications.
Strong medications in some conditions are unavoidable. Conditions such as epilepsy, pneumonia, asthma, strep throat, high fever, arthritis, dia-betes and heart disease may require treatment with strong medications even during pregnancy. Leaving these types of disease untreated would be far more harmful to mother and fetus than the medications. Consider the risks of the symptoms if left untreated, the benefits of the treatment, the seriousness of the condition, other possible treatments and their benefits and the risks of both condition and treatment.
Two widely used drugs are generally considered to be harmless - aspirin (Anacin, Bayer, Bufferin, Empirin etc.) and acetaminophen (Datril, Tempra, Tylenol etc.). These drugs reduce pain and fever but both readily cross the placenta and enter fetal circulation. We will focus on each of these drugs.
Aspirin
 One tablet of aspirin is enough to alter the body`s ability to clot blood and prolong the bleeding time. The usual adult dose is two tablets, which will double the bleeding time. The effect of aspirin lasts from four to seven days after a single dose. Aspirin, taken towards the end of pregnancy, is more harmful be-cause normal bleeding after birth may be increased and pro-longed. It is not safe either to take aspirin even earlier in pregnancy, as it could worsen any bleeding you have during your preg-nancy.
Aspirin present in the baby`s circulation at birth also prolongs bleeding time for the newborn and it increases the likelihood of jaundice. It is advisable therefore that you should avoid aspirin dur-ing pregnancy, except when it is necessary for controlling cer-tain diseases like arthritis where its benefits outweigh these risks.
Acetaminophen
 Acetaminophen is potentially less harmful than aspirin. The moderate use of acetaminophen does not adversely affect the fetus. The consistent use of more than the recommended dosage would lead to kidney damage in the fetus. If you normally tolerate acetaminophen well, it would be advisable to use acetaminophen in modera-tion rather than aspirin and only if you really need a pain or fever medi-cation during pregnancy.
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