Experts warn that uncontrolled administration of pain relief pills during pregnancy is not allowed. Before taking any medication, pregnant women should seek medical advice and carefully read its instructions for use.
However, the future mother not always have the possibility to quickly address a doctor, so her home medicine chest should contain safe, effective and proven analgesics.
The feeling of pain and heaviness in the back, headache or toothache can bring a lot of discomfort and various problems to a pregnant woman. It is good, if the pain is weak and passes quickly, but what should pregnant women do, if the pain is severe and does not last long?
During pregnancy, most women avoid the use of pain medications, fearing of bringing harm to the unborn baby’s health. However, long-term pain is a severe stress not only for the woman, but for her fetus, as well. Therefore, it is impossible to avoid analgesics in some cases.
Limitations in the use of pain relief pills during pregnancy does not mean that the woman should suffer from pain in the legs or lower back during the entire gestation period. The rich assortment of pain medications does include those, which can be used in pregnant women.
Paracetamol or Acetaminophen
Paracetamol is one of the few safe analgesics, which can be taken during pregnancy. These pain relief pills are available over the counter at any pharmacy.
This pain medication helps not only to stop pain, but also provides antipyretic and anti-inflammatory effects.
Thanks to these properties, Paracetamol can be used in catarrhal diseases, accompanied by high fever and pains of different localization.
Although Paracetamol is deemed a safe analgesic, it does not mean that it should be taken immediately as the mildest pain manifests. If applied often and in higher doses, this analgesic may have a toxic effect on the baby’s or mother’s liver and kidneys.
Therefore, the time of these pain relief pills administration during pregnancy should be reduced to a minimum, and the dose used should be the minimal possible.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
Aspirin and Ibuprofen belong to the NSAIDs group, which can be used during pregnancy. The medicines provide analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory effects.
• The main indications for the use of Ibuprofen and Aspirin pills are pains of various origin (headache, toothache, joint, muscle) and symptomatic treatment of colds.
A number of studies have shown that the use of these drugs during pregnancy is not associated with the development of malformations or birth defects in the fetus. Despite this, care must be taken when a pregnant woman uses ibuprofen and aspirin.
Use of NSAIDs for pain relief is generally safe, yet can harm the fetus and delay birth, if not taken correctly. For this reason, the use of these pain relief pills during the third trimester of pregnancy should be performed under medical supervision.
Opioid analgesics
Codeine, Tramadol and other opioid analgesics are contraindicated for pregnant women. The main concern is that frequent use of these powerful pain relief pills during pregnancy leads to dependence in mother.
The studies revealed that Codeine and other pain medications increase the risk of such serious pathologies in the baby, as glaucoma or congenital heart defects.
Use of opioid analgesics in a pregnant woman can be justified only if non-opioid painkillers do not help to stop severe pain. At that, the treatment course should be as short as possible.
If it is impossible to avoid the use of analgesic, woman should take it as rarely as possible and switch to non-pharmacological pain management as soon as possible.