'One Size Fits All' Medicine Approach Doesn't Work in Pregnancy

Blanket approaches to prescribing medicine during pregnancy may put low birth weight babies at risk, finds a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal Placenta.

Smaller fetuses metabolize medicine taken by the mother in a less efficient way than normal-weight babies, leading to long-term health consequences, reports UniSA and New Zealand fetal physiologists.

‘Some prescribed or over-the-counter drugs may put growth-restricted babies at risk if the dosage is incorrect. ’

Growth restricted babies could be exposed to higher concentrations of some prescribed or OTC drugs that a woman takes during pregnancy due to a 'one size fits all' strategy when it comes to dosing.

"If the mother takes 20 milligrams of a drug for a smaller fetus, it may definitely be a higher dose than in a normal-sized baby, Prof Morrison says".

However, more work needs to be done to better explain the interaction between pregnancy and fetal growth in how drugs are metabolised.

The dosages should be higher or lower depending on how the fetus metabolizes the drug.

Source: Medindia