Study: Aspirin and Acetaminophen Raise Risk of Severe Pregnancy Complications
Pregnant women who took over-the-counter pain relievers such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen were at higher risk of experiencing stillbirth, miscarriage, and delivering their babies pre-term, according to a massive new U.K. study.
Researchers in the United Kingdom surveyed records of more than 151,000 women who gave birth in the Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Databank between 1985 and 2015. The vast majority of women, over 83%, who were pregnant reported using an over-the-counter analgesic to relieve common symptoms such as joint pain in the first trimester. They studied five common pain relievers — acetaminophen, ibuprofen, aspirin, diclofenac, and naproxen. Women who took at least one of five over-the-counter painkillers during pregnancy were at a 50% higher risk of premature delivery and 33% more likely to experience a stillbirth.
They also found that babies born to mothers who took at least one of the five over-the-counter analgesics were 64% more likely to have birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord and 57% more likely to be transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit to receive specialized care.
Pregnant women are generally discouraged from taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, Advil, and Aleve due to the risk they pose of causing neonatal kidney damage and high blood pressure in the baby’s lungs, particularly in later stages of pregnancy. Acetaminophen was especially common, with 55% of the pregnant women the U.K. researchers studied reported using it.
The risk of severe birth defects was even higher when acetaminophen was combined with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. (Read more from “Study: Aspirin and Acetaminophen Raise Risk of Severe Pregnancy Complications” HERE)
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