It takes a lot to embrace motherhood. It demands a lot of caution, responsibilities and judgment from your side if you are planning to give birth to "Junior". You may need to change your diet, lifestyle and even your medications to gift your offspring a healthy life. Medications- yes, the chemicals may pass on from your bloodstream to that of your baby's and may interfere with his well-being.
The FDA has suggested that a baby likely to be borne with lower IQ levels if his mother had been on a dosage of anti-seizure or anti-migraine medications during pregnancy. These drugs include compounds like valproic acid, divalproex sodium, valproate sodium and their equivalents.
According to the FDA, children of mothers who were on a dosage of the above mentioned medications have a greater probability of achieving low scores in cognitive tests in comparison to children who were exposed to other types of anti-seizure drugs while growing up inside the mother's womb.
The FDA suggested that it based the conclusions on epidemiological studies which proved the correlation between these drugs and low IQ and cognitive test scores. The use of these drugs during pregnancy has also been linked with birth defects like neural tube defects.
In another study conducted in 2010 in Sweden, it was observed that children who were exposed to anti-epileptic drugs, especially the valproic acid ones, in the fetal stage had a weak academic background in their school.
Experts opined that the study findings will definitely relate anti-epileptic drugs with adverse effects on a child's neurodevelopment. They have advised women who are on a dosage to opt for pregnancy planning so as to enable their doctors to devise individualized treatment options for them. This will ensure a safe pregnancy for the mum-to-be and her child.
