is it a feminist issue that the average woman will spend years of her life being pregnant

I was given some lovely bath things and soap from Space NK and when I looked there was a warning on them saying not safe for use by pregnant women.
They may have had essential oils in or something. All very strange.

yes its outrageous you had to lie to buy caneston ffs!

and it happens with lots of otc drugs.

even when getting prescriptions that have been okayed by the consultant i have had pharmasist try to not let me have them and question if the dr knew i was pregnant...well if you can see the fuck off great bump i am pretty sure the dr that prescribed to me did..

i get they are scared of lawsuits etc but please dont treat me like i am incapable.

5Mad - I totally agree in the realms of prescription drugs BTW. I was commenting specifically on OTC drugs.

You're right 5madthings. I had to put on my biggest hoodie and lie to the hospital pharmacist in order to buy some Canesten whilst pregnant. The doctor had already precribed me some and told me to come back if it recurred and I could have more of the same. Since that would have necessitated a half day off work, I chose to cut out the middleman. I got the same product that the doctor would have given me.

Well, actually there is some fairly good information on aspirin in pregnancy. Gathered in the same way as alcohol information one would assume. This is from NHS Direct:

"Can I take aspirin if I’m pregnant?
Paracetamol is the first choice of painkiller if you are pregnant.
Do not take aspirin for pain if you’re pregnant. In particular, you shouldn’t take aspirin at a painkiller dose (300mg - 900mg) in the last 13 weeks of pregnancy because of the risk of heart problems and jaundice in the baby. There is also a greater risk of you getting severe bleeding in labour.
However, a doctor may prescribe low dose aspirin (usually 75mg a day) to prevent pre-eclampsia (pregnancy induced hypertension) if you are at risk of this condition. Pre-eclampsia (pregnancy induced hypertension) is a serious condition in pregnancy causing very high blood pressure and fits. Do not take low dose aspirin unless advised to by a doctor."

Now admittedly I do rant about women being treated like they lose all critical faculties when they become pregnant. But doctors are in a very difficult situation with new drugs. Can't tell women to use it because it is gambling with the health of the foetus. So your pool would be 'women who didn't know that they were pregnant or ignore medical advice'. Which is a difficult pool because it is small and may give unreliable recollection (which is a problem anyway, e.g re alcohol).

They can't give you odds because the stats are so unreliable. Only clinical trials could give you that kind of data. What they can say, with older medicines like paracetamol and aspirin is a general view from historical use.

I think you might be better off in terms of safety information if you stick to 'official' medicines rather than natural remedies. Natural remedies come with a lot of anecdotal evidence from a wide variety of sources with different agendas. Drug companies have agendas too, but they are also TERRIFIED of getting sued. Therefore they tend to test their drugs fairly stringently before letting them go on the market.

What I am trying to say is that there is probably a lot more reliable safety info out there for marketed drugs than there is for natural remedies.

paracetamol will do fuck all for a bad ear infection and the resulting pain.

thete are stronger meds you can take but somwtimes it depends how preg you are ie coproxamol codydromol etc. i had some prescribed due to awful spd, pain so bad i was admitted at one point.

also ant depressants in pregnancy and whilst bfeeding. so many times women are told to stop taking them or to stop bfeeding when that is not necessary.

hell.i had a dr that wouldnt even prescribe me a mild steroid cream for eczema when oreg as it might get absorbed into skin then blood stream and coukd then cross into the placenta! fffs.

i know drs want to be cautious but there is evidence out there, particularly re meds and bfeeding and maybe let women make an informed choice. its a case of balancing the health of mum and hwalth of the fetus, its not black and white and all situations vary but blanket refusals to give any medication to preg women are not helpful.

some pharmasists will refuse to sell products to obviously pregnant women!

If you're thinking drugs and feminist issues, look into the politics of the menopause, where many GPs refuse to consider HRT for women who are really suffering (ignoring the latest research) and many women can't even get treatment for debilitating and painful vaginal symptoms with local, ultra low dose preparations which can improve their quality of life. We're talking here being unable to have sex, or sit, or walk. But nobody talks about it because women in their 50s and above are meant to be invisible.

In your situation I would have taken a paracetamol. I'm not generally a pill popper, I didn't need anything in my first pregnancy, second pregnancy I took a paracetamol for ear-ache. I was told it was safe. I think it's less than ideal taking medicine in pregnancy but one pill isn't going to be an issue.

i think there is a big issue in medicine regards women such as treatment in opreg and specifically labour and the general assumption by many that 'womens issues' such as heavy periods, side effects from contraception etc are not a big deal.

an example is when my dp took anti deoressants for a while and they ermm dedtroyed his libido and ability to perform.. the dr straight away changed his meds and was very sympathetic.

then when i had meds for pnd and suffered lack of libido and coukdnt reach orgasm the same dr just dismissed it as not a big deal... i mean who cares if a woman isnt enjoying sex?!!

and meds in preg and bfeeding are tricky but often, esp with bfeeding there is info out there but many drs cant be arsed to try and find out.

Yes because they have studied such outcomes as Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.

For your ear infection, melt some raw virgin coconut oil with one drop of tea tree oil and run it into your ear.

There are plenty of remedies for all sorts of ills that are non invasive, safe and effective. Now might be a good time to say fuck you to the pharmacy and start looking for alternatives.

I actually got given medication once by a pharmacist on the basis of anecdote.

I was 28 weeks pregnant with horrific heartburn and I BEGGED him for something other than gaviscon or calcium carbonate. He handed me a packet of zantac, saying 'I shouldn't give you this but my brother's a doctor and his wife's taken zantac for heartburn in all three of her pregnancies. So it's fine. You should get a doctor to prescribe it for you though.'

I could have kissed him.

Later on I went to the doctor and told him this story. He said 'fair enough' and prescribed it immediately. I went through 4 months of horrible heartburn for no reason at all!!

I knew better with DS2 - went to the doc and was prescribed it at 12 weeks pg

A database of accumulated info from pregnant women who have taken these medications would be very helpful. I don't think you should take anything illegal though, even if it might be beneficial.

I personally feel that the issue of pain relief in labour and breastfeeding is more of a feminist issue.

There are slight changes to the licencing that could help this without running extra trials. For example, there is an antihistamine safe in pregnancy prescribed for a histamine based rash that can occur in pregnancy. It is licenced for this condition. It has also been shown to work for hay fever in non pregnant people, however, it is not licenced for hay fever in pregnancy as that would be a separate category and not worth it to the company. It could be debated that being shown safe for one thing whilst pregnant is good enough?

Not sure it is a feminist issue exactly, I think it is fairly similar to the issues you might come up against if you have multiple conditions of any sort and that would be a better argument for opening the discussion than the fairly brief time spent pregnant.