Pregnancy and Asthma – II
December 16, 2008
Being asthmatic during pregnancy is not something life threatening. A woman’s asthma may need to be controlled with medication during her pregnancy. While many women are rightly concerned about the use of medications during pregnancy, uncontrolled asthma is a much greater hazard to the baby than any asthma medication.
Maintaining proper lung function gives the baby oxygenated blood, which ensures that the baby is able to breathe and grow. Most drugs commonly used to treat asthma show no added risk in pregnant women or their developing babies. This means that most common inhalers and other asthma controlling medications are safe for you and the baby. There are some antibiotics, such as tetracyclines, sulphonamides and ciprofloxacin that must not be taken during pregnancy, but your doctor will advise you on this.
If you took medication for your asthma before you became pregnant, especially if your asthma was well controlled, you may be tempted to stop taking your medication out of fear that it might harm the foetus. That would be a mistake without the advice of your health care provider. The risk to the foetus from most asthma medications is tiny compared to the risk from a severe asthma attack. The more severe the asthma, the greater is the risk to the foetus.
How pregnancy may affect your asthma is unpredictable. About one third of women with asthma experience improvement while they are pregnant, about one third get worse, and the other third stay about the same.
The milder your asthma was before pregnancy, and the better it is controlled during pregnancy, the better your chances of having few or no asthma symptoms during pregnancy. If your asthma control deteriorates during pregnancy, the symptoms tend to be at their worst during 6-8 months. The important thing to remember is that your asthma can be controlled during pregnancy. If your asthma is controlled, you have just as much chance of a healthy, normal pregnancy and delivery as someone who does not have asthma.





















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