preggytips.com

A recent study in Israel found that women suffering from morning sickness could safely consume a particular anti-nausea drug, metoclopramide without harming their unborn child. The drug was tested during a large study. According to experts, the result of the study has the potential to greatly impact how doctors take care of morning sickness because now, mothers have safe pharmaceutical option.

At this time, there is no morning sickness drug approved for consumption in the United States. Statistically, most women suffer from morning sickness during the first trimester of pregnancy. Some are subjected to morning sickness considerably longer and a small percentage is sick during the entire pregnancy. In the past, physicians have utilized strategies including eating small meals on a frequent basis or eating crackers to ward off nausea.

In Israel, the study examined approximately 82,000 births in which metoclopramide was used. The research indicates that there is no difference regarding natal problems and birth defects between women who did or did not take the drug.

According to New York’s Mount Sinai M.C. obstetrics director, Dr. Keith Eddleman, said, the study’s findings are “comforting.” Eddleman went on to say that many mothers are unwilling simply based on stories they have heard and the idea that they might cause injury to the baby.

The complete results were recently printed in the New England Journal of Medicine. While its findings are encouraging, it is important to note that the study did not consider the effectiveness of the drug itself.

For many, morning sickness is less than a nuisance, but for others, it can make the pregnancy extremely difficult. Some expecting mothers have experienced severe weight loss during pregnancy. Regardless, mothers and doctors alike have been reluctant to utilize drugs to combat the illness because of the possibility of complications in the pregnancy or fetus.

For example, in the 1960’s both Canada and Europe utilized a drug called Thalidomide that was later found to produce newborns with shortened or missing limbs. In the 1980’s another company released Bendectin that many claimed also caused deformities in the limbs. Studies of the drug never actually linked the drug to the deformities. But still, the idea of harming the fetus lingers in the minds of mothers and their doctors.

Studying the use of anti-nausea medication in pregnant women is considered controversial considering the possibility of accidentally harming the fetuses involved in the study.