USE OF DRUGS IN PREGNANCY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30057, 15 February 1963, Page 2

USE OF DRUGS IN PREGNANCY

Professor Lists Basic Rules

DUNEDIN, February 14.

The thalidomide tragedy has focused public and professional attention on the vulnerability of the unborn child in the first three months of pregnancy, said Professor J. J. Wright, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Otago Medical School, in a paper given to the B.M.A. conference today. Since the effects of thalidomide were known, some persone went as far as to say that a pregnant woman should not be given any drug at all, unless it had been used with apparent safety for many years.

“With new drugs constantly being released, the problem of what is safe for the pregnant woman is vital,” he said.

Professor Wright listed the following “basic rules” for safety:

(1) Use only well-tried drugs. (2) Avoid drugs in the first three months of pregnancy unless urgently indicated. <3) Keep a careful record of time and duration and dosage of all drugs. (4) Correlate with any abnormality detected at birth.

(5) Some central regirtry to collate information, along the lines of Dr. Neil Begg’s work (for the Plunket Society) or the College of General Practitioners in Britain.

(8) New drugs to be released on a “trial basis” only for 18 months before general release.

(N.Z. Press Association)