Chapter 29 Drugs and drugs of abuse in pregnancy
The decision on whether to prescribe a drug to pregnant women must take into account the risk of the therapy and the risk of withholding the treatment. This requires a thorough up-to-date understanding of the drug and its risk/benefit ratio in pregnancy, as well as knowledge about the pharmacokinetics of the drug in pregnancy and the accurate assessment of the gestational age at the time of possible in utero exposure.
Teratogens
Information about the potential teratogenic risk of medications can be sourced from the Australian Government Therapeutic Goods Administration (see Box 29.1) and online databases (see Box 29.2).
Box 29.1 Australian categorisation of drugs in pregnancy
Category B
Drug pharmacokinetics and pregnancy
Drug pharmacokinetics is affected by the complex changes that occur in maternal, fetal and placental physiology during pregnancy.