Breastfeeding May Protect Women Against Breast Cancer

Posted on March 7, 2009 by Doctor

According to a study, breastfeeding may offer broad protection against breast cancer that extends to women who delay having children.
Previous studies have shown that giving birth before age twenty five and having many children protects against certain types of breast cancer , while delayed child birth is associated with a higher risk of breast cancer.
The most important finding of the new study is that breastfeeding seems to lower the risk of developing breast cancer that comes from having children later in life according to an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California and the study’s lead author.
Results of the study were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Los Angeles.
“As more women may chose to delay pregnancy until after age twenty five, it is important to note that breastfeeding provides protection against both estrogen and progesterone receptor positive and negative tumors”, the associate professor said.
Women who develop breast cancer that is hormone receptor negative have a much poorer prognosis than women with other type of breast cancer.
The researchers analyzed data for women age fifty five and older, including 995 invasive breast cancer patients, and found that breastfeeding appears to have a protective effect regardless of when they started giving birth.
This is important since having many children was only protective among women who began having children at an early age. Evidence suggests that women who have children after age twenty five can reduce their risk of breast cancer by choosing to breastfeed, the associate professor concluded.
According to US Census data, twenty five is the average age that women in the US first give birth.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and by the National Cancer Institute.

Posted in Alternative Health Therapies, Babies and Toddlers, Child Safety | Tagged , | Comments Off

Alcohol, drugs and pregnancy

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Doctor

The birth of a child has a huge effect on the life of its parents and other relatives.Most parents-to-be use pregnancy as an opportunity to prepare their lives and environment to the new circumstances, with the safety of the baby they are responsible for in mind particularly. One of the things that there is reason to consider is parents’ consumption of tobacco, alcohol and drugs. Women who are trying to become pregnant should make it a priority to cut down on or stop consuming these substances as they can reduce fertility and increase the risk of miscarriage.

With the baby in mind

A nine month pregnancy is only a short period of a person’s life, which is therefore reason for women to enjoy it as best as possible. The most important role of expectant parents is to contribute to the health of the baby that is on the way. A mother’s lifestyle – including her diet and consumption habits – can make a great difference for her baby’s future and development. Her diet must include all essential nutrients for both mother and child, but it is no less important for her to avoid foods and substances that may be damaging to the foetus she carries. This can be difficult if the lifestyle of close family and relatives is not in keeping with the needs of mother and baby. Their support and willingness to help meet these new needs make a big difference. This is something that needs to be discussed openly within the family.

Is alcohol harmful to the baby?

Yes. When a woman is pregnant, her baby is a part of her. Everything that she eats or drinks is also passed on to the baby, including alcohol. Alcohol that she drinks is carried by the bloodstream through the placenta and umbilical cord to the foetus. Its organs are not sufficiently developed to break down alcohol, meaning that alcohol affects the foetus more than the mother.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1st Trimester, 2nd Trimester, 3rd Trimester, After Testing +, Child Safety | Comments Off

Antiepileptic drugs in pregnancy and lactation

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Doctor

Cecilie M Lander, Associate Professor of Neurology, University of Queensland, and Senior Visiting Neurologist, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane

No antiepileptic drug is completely safe to use in pregnancy as the risk of fetal abnormality is increased. Valproate should be avoided if possible because of the risk of major malformations. Ideally a plan for managing the woman’s epilepsy during pregnancy should be prepared before conception. The occurrence of an unexpected pregnancy should not trigger sudden cessation or alteration of antiepileptic drug treatment without medical advice. The smallest effective dose of a drug with a low risk of teratogenicity should be used. Doses may need adjustment as the pharmacokinetics of some drugs change during pregnancy. Data are limited, but most antiepileptic drugs seem to have little effect on full-term breastfed babies.

Uncontrolled epilepsy in a pregnant woman is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition for both mother and child. Most pregnant women with epilepsy will need to take at least one antiepileptic drug. The goal for all concerned is a healthy, seizure-free mother and an undamaged child. The following somewhat contradictory issues need to be considered concurrently.

• The optimum treatment of the mother’s epilepsy requires that the most appropriate antiepileptic drug be used in effective doses throughout pregnancy. This requires  knowledge of specific epileptic syndromes and also antiepileptic drug pharmacokinetics before, during and after pregnancy.
• Any adverse effect that the antiepileptic drug could have on the developing child needs to be avoided or minimised during pregnancy and lactation.

Continue reading →

Posted in Articles, Child Safety | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Antipsychotic drugs in pregnancy and breastfeeding

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Doctor

Debra Kennedy, Director, MotherSafe, Royal Hospital for Women, and Conjoint Lecturer,School of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney

There are limited data on the safety of antipsychotic drugs in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Reports of congenital abnormalities in the babies of women taking typical antipsychotics are uncommon, although chlorpromazine may cause symptoms in the neonate. No increased risk with atypical antipsychotics has yet emerged. If women can be managed with a low dose of a single antipsychotic drug the benefits of breastfeeding are likely to outweigh the risk of harmful effects.

The lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia is 0.5–1%. The peak incidence in women is during their childbearing years, but treatment can reduce fertility. The older antipsychotic drugs increase prolactin, resulting in significantly lower fertility rates than with the atypical antipsychotic drugs. The newer antipsychotics are also being used increasingly to treat other psychiatric disorders such as major depression and bipolar disorder. Many women with well-controlled psychiatric disease are therefore now able to contemplate pregnancy, but they have concerns about the effect of treatment on their offspring. Addressing these concerns is difficult because of a lack of data.

Typical antipsychotic drugs

Studies examining the use of the older antipsychotic drugs in pregnancy have not shown a significantly increased risk of birth defects above the baseline rate of 3% in the general population. There have been reports of two infants exposed to haloperidol with isolated limb defects, but they were also exposed to other drugs and thus there is no clear causal relationship with haloperidol. In contrast, there have been several larger studies which have not shown an increased risk of birth defects. Babies exposed to haloperidol and chlorpromazine in utero may show extrapyramidal abnormalities, similar to those seen in adults, for weeks after birth. Other suspected withdrawal symptoms following intrauterine exposure to chlorpromazine have included paralytic ileus, necrotising enterocolitis, fever, cyanotic spells and transient heart block.
Long-term follow-up studies of children have been reassuring. While these drugs probably still have their place in the treatment of acutely psychotic patients, they have largely been superseded by the atypical antipsychotics for long-term therapy.

Flupenthixol and the depot preparation zuclopenthixol are thioxanthene major tranquillisers. There are minimal human data apart from some case reports of normal outcomes following use in pregnancy. Like the older antipsychotic drugs they have been shown to affect fertility via dopamine and prolactin pathways.

Continue reading →

Posted in Anxiety, Child Safety, Depression | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Drugs in Pregnancy

Posted on February 1, 2009 by Doctor

GIDEON KOREN, M.D., ANNE PASTUSZAK, M.SC., AND SHINYA ITO ,M.D.

Before marketing a new drug, the manufacturer almost never tests the product in pregnant women to determine its effects on the fetus. Consequently, most drugs are not labeled for use during pregnancy. Typically, descriptions of drugs that appear in the Physicians’ Desk Reference and similar sources contain statements such as, “Use in pregnancy is not recommended unless the potential benefits justify the potential risks to the fetus.” Since the risk has been adequately established for only a few drugs, physicians caring for pregnant women have very little information to help them decide whether the potential benefits to the mother outweigh the risks to the fetus. These typical disclaimers,although understandable from the medicolegal standpoint, put large numbers of women and their physicians in difficult situations for several reasons. One is that at least half the pregnancies in North America are unplanned,and every year, hundreds of thousands of women therefore expose their fetuses to drugs before they know they are pregnant. Such women often interpret the statement that use during pregnancy is not recommended as meaning that the drug is not safe during pregnancy. There is evidence that this perception of fetal risk causes many women to consider or even seek termination of otherwise wanted pregnancies. Another reason is that with  the recent increase in the age at which women have children, conditions that necessitate long-term drug therapy are diagnosed in larger numbers of women Bbefore pregnancy.  Furthermore, for pregnant women with certain conditions once believed to be incompatible with pregnancy, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and heart diseases, the outcome of pregnancy has improved dramatically in the past few decades.

In this article, we review current knowledge of the fetal and neonatal effects of prescription and over-the-counter drugs given to pregnant women, with an emphasis on the approaches used to determine safety and risk. In addition, we review approaches to communicating such information to pregnant women and their families.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1st Trimester, 2nd Trimester, 3rd Trimester, Articles, Child Safety, Just For Mom, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Drugs and Pregnancy – “Oh My”

Posted on February 1, 2009 by Doctor

By Densie Schlingman DVM

Let’s start this article with three facts that need to be understood from the beginning.

  1. There are no drugs approved for use in alpacas in Canada at this time.
  2. Drugs that are used in alpacas have their dosages, frequency and safety extrapolated from other species.
  3. All drugs, dosages, safety and use discussed in this article have come from my past experiences or from other veterinarians. This does not guarantee that there will be no adverse affects from them when used by the reader.

Last but not least, there will probably never be drugs approved for alpacas in the near or distant future due to the extreme costs required to have an animal included on a label. This problem also applies to sheep and goat drug usages. The following are drugs I have used and feel confident in recommending. Remember, if given a choice, it is best not to use drugs during pregnancy, especially during the first 60 days when the embryo is developing. This is the time when the fetus is forming and implanting into the uterus. It is common for there to be a high incidence of early embryonic loss or reabsorbtion of the fetus, and I do not want drugs to increase this risk. However, if the situation indicates a drug is needed, then it should be given to save the mother. You can always re-breed at a later date.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1st Trimester, 2nd Trimester, 3rd Trimester, Articles, Child Safety, General Health Concerns, Just For Mom, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Taking Hydroxyzine during pregnancy and breastfeeding

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Drugs Expert

Generic AtaraxHYDROXYZINE (Generic Atarax)
Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation..

Name: HYDROXYZINE
Class: Antihistamine
Risk Factor: C

Fetal Risk Summary

Hydroxyzine belongs to the same class of compounds as buclizine, cyclizine, and meclizine. The drug is teratogenic in mice and rats, but not in rabbits, at high doses (1,2,3,4 and 5). One report suggested that hydroxyzine teratogenicity was mediated by a metabolite (norchlorcyclizine) that was common to four antihistamines (hydroxyzine, buclizine, meclizine, and chlorcyclizine) (3). High- dose hydroxyzine (6–12 mg/kg/day) resulted in abortions in rhesus monkeys (6). The manufacturer considers hydroxyzine to be contraindicated in early pregnancy because of the lack of clinical data (1,2).

In 100 patients treated in the 1st trimester with oral hydroxyzine (50 mg daily) for nausea and vomiting, no significant difference from nontreated controls was found in fetal wastage or anomalies (7). A woman treated with 60 mg/day of hydroxyzine during the 3rd trimester gave birth to a normal infant (8).

The Collaborative Perinatal Project monitored 50,282 mother-child pairs, 50 of which had 1st trimester exposure to hydroxyzine (9, pp. 335–337, 341). For use anytime during pregnancy, 187 exposures were recorded (9, p. 438). Based on 5 malformed children, a possible relationship was found between 1st trimester use and congenital defects.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1st Trimester, 2nd Trimester, 3rd Trimester | Leave a comment

Flying While Pregnant

Posted on September 23, 2008 by Drugs Expert

Many women are unsure about flying during pregnancy. Is it safe to fly while pregnant? Is there anything up in those skies that can harm your baby? What happens if you go into labor? Rest assured that flying while you are pregnant is almost always completely safe, so there’s no need to change your travel plans.

Who Can Fly
There are some restrictions as to just who should and should not travel the skies when they are pregnant. Generally, women who are having a healthy, normal pregnancy are free to come and go as they please. However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends women don’t fly after their 36th week of pregnancy.

Airlines have their own flight restrictions for pregnant women, which can vary according to whether you are flying domestically or internationally and which airline you will be flying. Some airlines won’t allow you to travel for 30 days before your due date, while others won’t let you on board if your due date is less than seven days away. Be sure to ask the ticket agent when you book your ticket just what their restrictions are since they probably won’t mention it otherwise. And don’t forget to consider how close your due date will be when you come back.

Women who are having any sort of complications associated with their pregnancy or who are considered to be ‘high risk’ should not travel. This includes women with poorly controlled diabetes, sickle cell disease, placental abnormalities, hypertension or those at risk for premature labor.
Continue reading →

Posted in General Articles, General Health Concerns | Leave a comment

Warning: Using a mobile phone while pregnant can seriously damage your baby

Posted on September 23, 2008 by Drugs Expert
Using mobile phone while pregnant

Using mobile phone while pregnant

Women who use mobile phones when pregnant are more likely to give birth to children with behavioural problems, according to authoritative research.

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the phones before the age of seven.

The results of the study, the first of its kind, have taken the top scientists who conducted it by surprise. But they follow warnings against both pregnant women and children using mobiles by the official Russian radiation watchdog body, which believes that the peril they pose “is not much lower than the risk to children’s health from tobacco or alcohol”.

Continue reading →

Posted in General Articles, General Health Concerns | Leave a comment

How To Treat Acne During Pregnancy

Posted on August 20, 2008 by Drugs Expert

Acne is mainly caused because of hormonal changes in the body. The hormones increase production of sebum and this sebum fills the glands to form acne. During pregnancy the hormonal activity is at it’s highest. But a pregnant woman may not use many acne medications. Let us find out now.

Acne and Differin

Differin is one of the most common retinoids that are used to treat acne. Differin clears the upper layer of the skin by peeling it off. Differin gives very good results in acne treatment and in improvement of skin.

Click here to buy Differin

Acne and Accutane

Accutane is an extremely powerful and potent acne-controlling medicine, is used in the treatment of moderate to severe acne that has failed other therapy. Accutane can treat the severe forms of acne. Accutane is taken orally to treat acne.

Click here to buy Accutane

Acne and Antibiotics

Many antibiotics are not allowed to be used during pregnancy. You must talk to your doctor before using any antibiotic in any form during your pregnancy.

Acne during pregnancy what else to use?

The choices are many to treat acne during pregnancy. Benzoyl peroxide, AHAs, Salicylic acid and few other products may be allowed by your doctor to treat acne. You should use any topical or oral medication even if it is OTC, only after consulting your doctor. Somehow, the acne clears off magically immediately after pregnancy. Is not that good news?

This article is only for informative purposes. This article is not intended to be a medical advise and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor for your medical concerns. Please follow any tip given in this article only after consulting your doctor. The author is not liable for any outcome or damage resulting from information obtained from this article.

Posted in Articles | Leave a comment