Drug safety during pregnancy is a sensitive topic with a convoluted history. Pregnant women have typically been excluded from clinical trials due to complex ethical and medical issues associated with the risks posed to unborn babies.
However, medical treatments for pregnant women still require robust evidence of safety and effectiveness, which can be difficult to source in the absence of trial data.
To get a sense of the complexity of this issue, it’s worth looking at its history. A stark example is the thalidomide disaster of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Thalidomide – a sedative used for morning sickness – led to horrific birth defects for hundreds of thousands of children throughout Europe.
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