Medications that Are Safe During Pregnancy: May Not Be Safe for Breast Feeding Mothers

During your pregnancy you may get a list of safe drugs from your OBGYN. They give this to all of their patients and cuts down on confusion since you should still talk to a doctor before taking any medications during your pregnancy. You can ask your doctor to provide you with a list of medications that are safe for you to take if they failed to provide you with one. Keep in mind that people do have allergies or adverse reactions to different drugs only you and your doctor will know what is safe for you to take. You should always take the lowest effective dose of a drug and follow the packages instructions.

If you are planning to breast-feed your child you will have to be careful what you take since many medications that may have been safe for you to take before may not be now. Certain drugs may pass through your milk and hurt your baby or dry up your milk supply.
According to the Food and Drug Administration most drugs have not been tested in breast feeding mothers, so they do not know how the drug will affect the child. They depend on the information they receive from complaints and problems reported to determine which drugs are considered safe.

As for Breastfeeding mothers: if you are taking a daily medication you should first check with your child's doctor. Usually you can take your daily medications right after a feeding to minimize your child's exposure to the drug. Most doctors will agree that there are some drugs that are compatible with breastfeeding. These include acetaminophen, ibuprofen, most antibiotics, antiepilepics (except primidone), most antihypertensives, codeine, and insulin. You should exercise caution while using aspirin since it is a blood thinner that can be passed onto your baby even three hours after taking the pill. Since acetaminophen and ibuprofen are safer you should try to rely on it instead of taking an aspirin. Other medications that are safe may dehydrate you so you will want to drink more fluids when you take an antihistamine, a decongestant, or anything that contains alcohol or caffeine. If you are dehydrated you may produce less milk.

There are some drugs that a breast-feeding mother can take if she stops nursing her child for a period of time she can pump her milk and dump it out. You would have to pump to keep up your supply so that you can continue to breast feed when you get off the drug. Talk to your doctor to find out when it is safe to nurse your child. You can give your child previously pumped frozen breast milk or formula while you are on the medication. Experts agree that there are some drugs that a nursing mother should never take: bromociptine, chemotherapy drugs, ergotamine, lithium, methotrexate and Tobacco products. Finally, you should never abuse drugs while nursing your child since it can adversely affect your child's health and your own. If you plan on breastfeeding your child and you are addicted to illegal drugs or are currently abusing drugs you will need to seek help.