What should be noted when pregnant women taking antibiotics

A recent study shows that about 30% of 13,000 pregnant mothers use antibiotics to treat the disease. If not careful, the fetus can suffer from birth defects.

During pregnancy, your body will make many changes. This also means that you will be more susceptible to infection and of course the idea of ​​taking antibiotics will emerge. However, is it safe for pregnant mothers to take antibiotics during this time? aFamilyToday Health will help you answer this question.

Fight off the infection

If you have a viral infection, doctors do not encourage pregnant women to take antibiotics for two reasons:

You will not be able to get rid of the disease

Overuse of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacteria. Later, the use of antibiotics will be ineffective.

However, for some common infections during pregnancy, such as urinary tract infections and group B Streptococcus infections, antibiotics are the only drugs that work. In this case, you should still take the medicine even if it could harm the baby. Why is that? If you do not get treatment, the chance of the disease affecting your baby is even higher than the chance of your baby being exposed to antibiotics.

Antibiotics are different

Antibiotics cause concern for many pregnant women. However, it is still an important treatment for some diseases. If you have a bacterial infection, your doctor will carefully choose the antibiotic when you prescribe it because all antibiotics are different. There are some medicines that are safe for pregnant women, but there are also some that can cause unusual complications.

The drugs will be divided into 5 groups A, B, C, D and X:

Class A drugs are considered safe for pregnant women.

Drugs of group X are harmful to the fetus and should not be used during pregnancy. If you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, ask your doctor about the medicines you are prescribed. You can also find this on the packaging of each medicine. Birth defects related to antibiotics belonging to group X include: flat brain (deformed skull and brain), posterior sniffling (an abnormality in the nose that obstructs the upper respiratory tract causing the child to turn cyanosis, respiratory failure steaming immediately after birth or the baby may die from choking porridge), hind limb deficiency, diaphragmatic hernia, eye defect, congenital heart defect and cleft palate.

The antibiotics of group B are also quite safe for pregnant women like Augmentin. This medicine is often used to treat bacterial infections such as sinusitis, pneumonia, and bronchitis. These are health problems that can harm the baby if not treated promptly.

Penicillin , the antibiotic most commonly used during pregnancy, is also believed to be less likely to increase the risk of birth defects. However, ethical considerations prevent drug testing in pregnant women from being conducted. Therefore, for many drugs, there is still no adequate research. There are several B class drugs that can adversely affect the fetus that are not currently recognized.

Although many antibiotics such as pencillin have been used safely for decades, the growing strength of resistant bacteria has prompted doctors to use more antibiotics. Therefore, safety depends on many factors including antibiotic type, dosage and duration of use. Even if an antibiotic is believed to have a high risk of birth defects, the likelihood remains low.

What antibiotics should and should not be used?

Safety tips for pregnant mothers to use antibiotics:

Amoxicillin

Ampicillin

Augmentin

Penicillin

Cephalexin

Clindamycin

Erythromycin

Some antibiotics are not safe for pregnant women:

Bactrim

Ciprofloxacin

Doxycycline

Furadantin

Macrobid

Macrodantin

Minocycline

Septra

Tetracycline

During pregnancy, you should see your doctor if you have an infection. Tell your doctor what medicines you are taking to avoid drug interactions. In addition, if you are pregnant in the first few months of pregnancy, you must emphasize that you are pregnant, so that your doctor should note when prescribing.