Drugs During Pregnancy and Lactation: Handbook of prescription drugs and comparative risk assessment

The care of pregnant women presents one of the paradoxes of modern medicine. Women usually require little medical intervention during an (uneventful) pregnancy. Conversely, those at high risk of damage to their own health or that of their unborn require the help of appropriate medicinal technology, including drugs. Accordingly, there are two classes of pregnant women, the larger group requires support but not much intervention, while the other needs the full range of diagnostic and therapeutic measures applied in any other branch of medicine.

This book presents the current state of knowledge about drugs in pregnancy. In each chapter information is presented separately for two different aspects of the problem seeking a drug appropriate for prescription during pregnancy, and assessing the risk of a drug when exposure has already taken place.

Practising clinicians who prescribe medicinal products to women who are, or who may become, pregnant, will find this volume an invaluable reference.