Pregnant women with asthma may breathe a bit easier with this news
December 4, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Women's Health
If you have asthma and are pregnant or are planning on getting pregnant, there’s some good news about the medications you may be taking to control your asthma. According to a review done by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, "Women can usually keep using the same asthma drugs they were using before they got pregnant. Budesonide sprays are the best studied and can be regarded as safe."
Because of ethical considerations, drug tests aren’t done on pregnant women, so information is gathered as it becomes available. With some illnesses, like epilepsy, asthma, and diabetes, women still need to be treated. So doctors rule out giving medications that they know can be harmful (usually from information gleaned from animal studies) and give the ones they feel are the least harmful. As these medications are given more often, evidence comes out as to whether they’re safe or not.
~~~
Tags: pregnancy blog, asthma in pregnancy, pregnant asthmatics
