Taking medication during pregnancy is never trivial and should only be done on the advice of a doctor, midwife or pharmacist. A prevention campaign launched on Wednesday June 2 recalls this message, not sufficiently understood by pregnant women: “Pregnant, medication is not just any old thing! “
This campaign will be rolled out through educational videos on social networks, inserts in the magazine press, 140,000 posters sent to health professionals, interviews with experts, or even a partnership with Youtubeur doctor Corentin Lacroix (WhyDoc) .
“The aim is to trigger in society a reflex equivalent to that of alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy”, explains the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), at the initiative of the campaign.
While nearly seven in ten women say they are fully informed about the risks of alcohol or tobacco consumption during pregnancy, they are only three in ten to say so when taking medication, according to a survey by l he Viavoice institute conducted online with 3,500 women aged 18 to 44. In practice, 36% of women pregnant with their first child have taken a drug on their own initiative, a figure which rises to 48% among pregnant women for whom it is not the first pregnancy.
Gold “Pregnancy is a special period, during which the intake of medication should generally be avoided”, because even the most common, such as certain painkillers or anti-nausea drugs, can “Have immediate or future repercussions on the unborn child”, explains the ANSM.
Risk of malformations
The risk of malformations (of organs or limbs) is greatest during the first trimester of pregnancy, especially with medicines containing thalidomide (sedative and antinausea), isotretinoin (treatment of severe acne) or valproate (treatment epilepsy and bipolar disorder).
Taken later in pregnancy, other drugs such as ibuprofen (an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever) or which are used to treat high blood pressure, may slow down the growth of the fetus or the proper development of the kidneys. Certain treatments can also be involved in the appearance of developmental disorders (autism, hyperactivity).
“This risk is not 100%, fortunately: it is not because I am going to take a drug that it will have an effect” on the unborn child. But only one take “May sometimes be sufficient to generate an effect, including involuntary termination of pregnancy”, specifies Céline Mounier, director of surveillance at ANSM. 2% to 3% of babies are born with a major malformation, and a European study attributes 5% of cases to taking medication by the mother. On a French scale, this would represent 800 to 1,200 births per year out of 800,000.
These dangers also concern products often wrongly perceived as harmless, such as herbal medicines and essential oils, warns the drug gendarme.
Conversely, one in six women who took a prescription drug stopped it without medical advice, mainly because she did not want to take any risk for her child, while any discontinuation or modification of treatment must also be decided on advice. medical, especially with regard to chronic diseases. So, “Unbalanced diabetes can have consequences for the woman and the unborn child”, warns Céline Mounier.
The agency wishes “Encourage dialogue” with caregivers as soon as the pregnancy is planned, because some drugs produce effects for several months, and others, risks from the first weeks of pregnancy, at a time when women are still unaware that they are pregnant.
In France, information on the risks associated with drugs during pregnancy has been strengthened in the wake of the scandal of Dépakine (valproate), a drug against epilepsy and bipolar disorders whose dangers for the fetus, known for a long time. date, were slow to be reported in the notice.