Can you antibiotics while pregnant

Antibiotics you should avoid altogether during pregnancy include streptomycin used to treat tuberculosis , which can cause hearing loss in your baby, and tetracycline including minocycline, oxytetracycline, and doxycycline , used to treat acne and respiratory infections. If you take tetracycline in the second or third trimester, it could discolor your developing baby's teeth. BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world.

When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals. We believe you should always know the source of the information you're seeing. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies. Committee opinion Sulfonamides, nitrofurantoin, and risk of birth defects. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Most antibiotics are safe during pregnancy. National birth defects prevention study. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Crider KS, et al. Antibacterial medication use during pregnancy and risk of birth defects: National Prevention Study. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 11 Mayo Clinic. Is it safe to take antibiotics during pregnancy? Norwitz E, et al.

Antibiotics in pregnancy: Are they safe? Reviews in Obstetrics and Gynecology 2 3 The U. Food and Drug Administration FDA 's list of Pharmaceutical Pregnancy Categories help doctors and their patients know the prenatal safety of medications. Drugs within Category A have been found to be safe for use in pregnant women, whereas drugs within Category X have been found to be harmful to fetuses and should not be used by pregnant women.

If you are pregnant or are trying to become pregnant, ask your doctor about the pregnancy categories of any prescribed medications. You can also find the pregnancy category designation of each medication on its package insert. Birth defects associated with antibiotics defined within Category X include anencephaly a fatal malformation of the skull and brain , choanal atresia a blockage of the nasal passage , transverse limb deficiency, diaphragmatic hernia, eye defects, congenital heart defects , and cleft palate.

The FDA requires a relatively large amount of high-quality data on a medication for a drug to be classified within Pregnancy Category A, and it is common for pregnant women to safely take Category B medications, such as Augmentin. The antibiotic is commonly used to treat bacterial infections such as sinusitis, pneumonia , and bronchitis, all which can be harmful to the baby if left untreated.

The drug has undergone animal reproduction studies and appears to have no negative effect on the pregnancy, says. Aleksandr M. Fuks, M. Penicillin , the most commonly used antibiotic during pregnancy, as well as other widely prescribed antibiotics, have not been found to be associated with increased risk for about 30 different birth defects, according to The National Birth Defects Prevention Study. But ethical considerations preclude conducting drugs trials in pregnant women, so for many drugs, no adequate and well-controlled studies, Dr.

Fuks says. There might be negative fetal effects associated with some Category B drugs that aren't currently recognized. Though many antibiotics such as pencillin have been used safely for decades, resistant strains of bacteria are forcing doctors to use a wider array of antibiotics.

Safety depends on various factors, including the type of antibiotic, when in your pregnancy you take the antibiotic, dosage, and duration of use. Even if an antibiotic has been linked to an elevated risk of birth defect , chances remain small. For example, the risk of having a child with hypoplastic left heart syndrome is about one in 4, Sulfonamide antibiotics such as Septrim and Bactrim are associated with a threefold increase, making the likelihood about one in 1,, according to the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

In a study published in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety , researchers investigated whether there was any link between taking macrolides — including azithromycin and clarithromycin — during pregnancy and having a baby with birth defects.

Some antibiotics such as penicillins are narrow spectrum-that is, they attack a single or several specific infections. Broad spectrum antibiotics tetracyclines or ampicillins attack a range of bacterial illnesses. Some types of bacteria are naturally more resistant to antibiotics than others. This is true, for example, of gram-negative bacilli-such as Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, and Vibrio.

Unlike other types of bacteria, these have a double-membrane surrounding each cell, which partly explains their added toughness against antibiotics. If doctors prescribe antibiotics when they are not necessary, patients may be exposed to needless risk.

This is especially true during pregnancy, because both the mother and her baby are exposed. Some drugs may be completely harmless to an unborn child, but others have been known to cause major malformations.

Because only a few controlled scientific studies have addressed whether drugs are safe to use during pregnancy, physicians usually rely on data from animal research and from the collective experience in practice to decide whether to prescribe antibiotics to a pregnant woman. In , the Food and Drug Administration FDA developed a classification system for drugs, including anti-infectives, with regard to their potential for having harmful effects on an unborn child:. Category A Controlled studies in women fail to demonstrate a risk to the fetus in the first trimester.

There is no evidence of risk in later trimesters. The possibility of fetal harm appears remote. Category B Animal reproduction studies have not demonstrated a fetal risk, but there are no controlled studies in pregnant women. Or, animal reproduction studies have shown an adverse effect other than a decrease in fertility , but which was not confirmed in controlled studies of women in the first trimester and there is no evidence of risk in later trimesters.

Category C Either studies in animals have revealed adverse effects on the fetus causing abnormalities or death and there are no controlled studies in women or studies in women and animals are not available. Drugs in this category should be given only if the potential benefit justifies potential risk to the fetus.

Category D There is positive evidence of human fetal risk, but the benefits from the use in pregnant women may be acceptable despite the risk-for example, if the drug is needed in a life-threatening situation or for a serious disease for which safer drugs cannot be used or are ineffective.