Use of prescription drugs during pregnancy
About 6 out of 10 pregnant women use one or more prescription medications during pregnancy.
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This is on the same level as in other European countries. There has been a slight increase in this proportion over the past 10 years.
Most of the medicines used do not have any known harmful effects on the child or the mother. Especially in the first part of pregnancy, when the child's organs are being formed, pregnant women should be careful when using medicines. The proportion of mothers who have used potentially harmful medicines in the first part of pregnancy has increased from 15% to 19% in the last 10 years. It has, among other things, been an increase in the use of anti-nausea drugs.
In an article in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, researchers at the Institute of Public Health and the University of Bergen have mapped which prescription drugs women in Norway use in connection with pregnancy and whether this has changed in the last ten years. The study is based on 600,000 births in the period 2005-15.
Literature:
Engeland A, Bjørge T, Klungsøyr K, Hjellvik V, Skurtveit S, Furu K. Trends in prescription drug use during pregnancy and postpartum in Norway, 2005-2015. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2018.