Oral Birth Defects

If you are considering having a baby, you might want to avoid your migraine medicine. They could cause your unborn baby to have birth defects.

I get horrible headaches from time to time. I only take over the counter medicine. I cannot imagine if they were bad enough to need a prescription. It would be really hard to tolerate. I think a lot of people with severe migraines can't work or drive or do much of anything. However, It would certainly be worth the pain if you were preventing your baby from having a birth defect. It is alarming to think those birth defects often form before a women knows she is pregnant. That makes it really hard to stop taking the medicine in time.

FROM NBC: A medication used to prevent migraine headaches may increase the risk for birth defects. The Food and Drug Administration says Topamax and its generic versions sold as topiramate can lead to cleft lip and cleft palate deformities in babies born to pregnant women taking the medication.

Topamax is also used to treat certain types of seizures. The FDA says doctors should warn their female patients of the increased risks if they're in their child-bearing years. Oral birth defects often form early in pregnancy, before many woman know they're pregnant.
-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Can I take that when I'm pregnant?

I just love this picture I found on a blog. I remember when my sons did this to my stomach. Isn't it the craziest thing? I never got a cool picture like this!

I thought I would post this somewhat "lighter" story this afternoon after all the controversy the last three days.

The Federal Drug Administration is looking at replacing prescription drug warning codes for pregnancy. If this is implemented I will be thrilled. It seems like every doctor has a different idea of what pregnant women should avoid. And don't even get me started on what you can and cannot have when you're nursing. I remember bottled water was "not recommended" for nursing mothers. It has something to do with how many people have been tested. If no one has looked at the impact of bottled water and breastfeeding, it is "not recommended."

And then there are all those rules about what you can't eat when you're pregnant. I know my neighbor told me I couldn't have raw deli meat. I had to heat it up to kill bacteria. My doctor never said anything about this to me. But, of course, we all want what's best for our babies. So, I ordered every sandwich heated in the deli for nine months. It was very annoying and people always looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was.

"The Federal government's proposal is to add clearly marked labels that describe what research shows. It's meant to help doctors and patients know which medications are safe for women to use during pregnancy or when they breastfeed. Right now, prescription drugs have a code in the fine print.

For instance, category "A" means it's deemed safe, but category "X" means it's known to harm human fetuses. Other category's in between have varying levels of evidence one way or the other. The new system would have sections with research about fetal risk."

I hope this happens. I know I had to go on certain medications when I was pregnant that weren't necessarily recommended, but that's all I knew. What could they do to my baby? Is there a real danger or has this medication not been tested thoroughly?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen