Study Links 2 Antibiotics to Brith Defects

Two common antibiotics have been linked to birth defects in newborns.

The Centers for Disease Control has done a recent study that has found two antibiotics that expecting mothers take will cause birth defects in their newborns.

The dangerous antibiotics were found to be nitrofuratoins and sulfonamides. These antibiotics are prescribed commonly to women diagnosed with urinary tract infections.

According to the recent study women that partook of these antibiotics while they were pregnant had more of a risk to give birth to babies with fatal malformation of the skull and brain, called anencephaly.

The lead author of the study and geneticist with the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Krista Crider said “The most important message is that most commonly used antibiotics do not seem to be associated with the birth defects we studied.”

The researchers added that penicillin’s that are quite typical to be prescribed in early pregnancy appears to not cause any type of problems. If a mother who is pregnant and has a bacterial infection, if not taken care of it can cause a problem for the fetus if it is not treated and taken care of so to do away with antibiotics is not a solution, but it should be discussed thoroughly with your doctor.

The antibiotics that were involved in the discovery were noted to have been introduced awhile before the FDA and agency’s required safer, intense testing like they do today to ensure that all medications are safe for pregnant mothers and their babies, according to the AP.

This study can be found in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.