To want to make my own decision about what I out on my body in pregnancy

[ichifanny]

Nearly 30 weeks pregnant got absolutely massive agony haemorrhoids that are stopping me from sleeping from be pressure , went to a pharmacy to get a treatment cream as I was desperate and was told as I’m pregnant I’d need to see GP for a prescription even though I can buy it in any shop off the shelf . Naturally I came home empty handed and have ordered same day delivery on Amazon . I’m getting slightly fed up with feeling like public property in pregnancy , anyone can walk in and buy the cream but my being pregnant meant they would t allow me to ,if I want to drink a bottle of vodka or smoke some heroin or use cream on my arse I will .

We were at a bbq the other week, ran out of booze so....who was the only person who wasn't drinking and could drive....🙋🏻‍♀️

Got a list and a load of cash of what everyone wanted and headed off to the shop. Totally forgetting I'm pregnant tbh....only when I got to the till and I thought 'oh well this looks bad doesn't it'

Luckily paid for it no problem but literally none of it was for me lol

I think it would be better if they just asked pregnant women to sign a form confirming that they won't sue if their baby dies or has birth defects. Surely that would be the best solution?

Yes valance that would be too sensible though , not really sure why I ever need to sue someone over like cream , I’ve went through all scenarios and can’t see a way it would harm a foetus .

I agree OP. To make it worse much of what we get told as fact is not universally agreed upon. Food restrictions used to particularly wind me up. I am an intelligent woman able to read the actual research and come to my own conclusions. I chose to eat soft cheese and so many women would say to me “you CANT eat that”. My go to response was “I think I just did”. I recommend the book ‘expecting better’. People are very odd about pregnancy!

When I was in early pregnancy with dd the only I could.stomach at all was parma ham. So I ate that!

Yanbu

Yanbu! I had similar experiences. I don’t show until the very last month, but because I was wearing a tshirt that had baby feet on the bottom, I was refused a bottle of wine and some soft cheeses in Tesco’s. I don’t drink - I never have- and I was buying it for a party (obvious party trolly: coke, huge birthday cake for 16 people, balloons, streamers etc) the woman ringing up my items literally moved them to one side and when asked informed me she had the right to remove them from my basket as I was “clearly pregnant and therefore going to abuse the items” had a go at the manager about their discriminatory behaviour, then turned around and bought the items through the scan as you go....

Some bastard pharmacist stopped me buying some mouth ulcer gel when I could barely talk for the couple of agonizing ulcers I randomly had during pregnancy. It was my own stupid fault. I offered the fact that I was pregnant and then they refused to sell it to me.

So I donned a massive winter coat, took myself to Tesco and bought it from there insread. I cried all the way to Tesco.

Clearly pharmacists should use better discretion - if it's safe then it's safe. However you seen to think tht they, even in their medical capacity, should sell you anything you want. I can't go in an buy 200 paracetamol. I always get asked what other meds I'm on and presumably have the right to sell me something that would harm me.
So yes you should be able to buy hemmeroid cream if it's safe, no you shouldn't be able to buy anything you want from a PHARMACY just because you want it and not because you're pregnant but because they have a duty of care.

@Toffee exactly the same thing happened to me in Sainsbury’s. I was buying alcohol for Christmas, we had loads of people coming over. Obviously far too much alcohol for one person, plus lots of mince pies/party food.

It was so patronising! “Ooh no we can’t allow you to be in the same room as alcohol in case some falls into your mouth”

I also went to a specialist beer pub with friends when I was about six months pregnant, and ordered a non-alcoholic Belgian wheat beer. The barmaid asked very suspiciously “that’s not for you, is it?” and when I said yes, it’s non-alcoholic, she said I still shouldn’t be drinking it in pregnancy! It was pasteurised etc so perfectly safe. Just “looks bad” apparently.

It is a legal thing with licensing, they don't test medications on preganant women, so although likely to be safe, a pharmacy isn't allowed to sell it. It isn't any sort of judgement.

Your anus's capacity for drug absorption is huge . You have one of your biggest blood supplies down there so even though it's just a cream or a suppository doesn't make it less dangerous than a tablet.

That's why when an infant/toddler is having febrile convulsions the quickest way to bring their temp down is with a paracetamol suppository. Works much faster than oral paracetamol.

I agree that the regulations seem silly to the majority of women and it might seem the logical answer to leave it to the pharmacists discretion however not everybody is infallible to error, even doctors make mistakes and even as a pharmacist, if we hand out a prescription where a GP has made a dosing error we are as liable for any harm that may come to the patient for not clinically checking properly.

Plus not every woman is able to make an informed diagnosis on themselves. Like a PP above who mentioned all the mouth ulcers, enough to bring her to tears - this could indicate an autoimmune issue and it's just as negligent for us to recommend something that could mask symptoms of something that could require further investigations.

In that instance personally I would have sold the mouth gel but strongly recommended an appt with a doc to see if there was any underlying issue at play.

9/10 we are being over cautious and seem like jobsworths but it's worth it for that one patient who might unintentionally bring themselves (or baby) to harm by not doing their research on what's safe and what isn't.

Are supermarkets really able to refuse to sell booze and brie etc to pregnant women?

It can't be lawful surely?

I was 6 weeks pg and had thrush while on holiday in another part of the UK. I was 200 miles and across a sea from my GP. I said to the pharmacist that I was pregnant, so they refused to sell me anything and just said to go to my GP. I pointed out the technical difficulties of that suggestion and didn't get any further advice. Waiting 10 days to get to my GP with untreated thrush probably wasn't the best plan...

So with no local knowledge of medical services to be able to access a OTC medicine commonly used in pregnancy, I ended up down at A&E then directed straight to the gynae ward as a walk in. I said with some truth that I was having a bleed (but was very light and most likely caused by the thrush). I was seen quickly, given a scan and told that I could wait a few hours for a doctor to sign a prescription or just go to a different pharmacy to get the Canesten that I would have bought anyway and omit the detail about pregnancy.

Being honest was a dearer option for the NHS leading to the same outcome that I wanted in the first place.

It's not your body though it's your baby's body?
Not coming at this from an ethical POV just a logic one

readyforapummelling I was in tears driving to Tesco through sheer frustration. It was freezing cold weather. I was forced to drive 5 miles to Tesco with my 2 small infants to buy the same product I could have bought from my local pharmacy.

I don't often suffer from mouth ulcers. Every now and again. No big deal. I get them sometimes when I've chewed on the inside of my mouth by accident during sleep.

It was abundantly clear to me that this was nothing out of the ordinary.

No offence but you sound just like the pharmacist I remember. Fixating on the what ifs, listening only to your training about litigation rather than giving some interest or thought towards a patient's history. In short, a jobsworth.

Health care should be about communication with the patient and, within reason, a respect for a their autonomy.

Sorry - just read your post again. Only skimmed it earlier before replying. What you said wasn't as bad as I'd thought. Still. If I can remember this a good 5 years on, that tells you what I thought of that pharmacist. Sorry for taking it out on you. Nothing to do with you.

It’s a joke ordered a caprese salad, waitress said not in your condition.
Tried to buy thrush cream told no, kicked off said for my sister gave me it to get crazy lady out of shop.
Doctor gave me prescription for medicine queue pharmacist questioning it, refusing it then getting supervisor out to tell me the same.
It’s a joke, my choice not the worlds!

Velourvoyageur what?! How is the op's hemorrhoidy arsehole not her body? How is it her baby's body? Don't be so deliberately thick! Of course her arse is her own body ffs! She's applying fucking anusol, not a fucking vodka and heroin enema. Jesus Christ.

@legolimb well apparently the Brixton branch of the Craft Beer Co can refuse to serve pregnant women non-alcoholic drinks too because they don’t want passers-by to see us sitting inside and think we are drinking alcohol

Generally YANBU - I was prevented from buying OTC paracetamol for DH “in case I took it myself”, prevented from buying alcohol for Christmas Day in Sainsbury’s “in case I drank it myself” (and so what if I did?), and told I had to have decaf coffee in Starbucks (well into my second trimester so quite safe by that point). I am a doctor, so well aware of what is and isn’t safe in pregnancy and more than capable of looking it up if I’m not sure, and being told by random people in shops that I couldn’t buy entirely normal things in case I misused them was infuriating.

@Sashkin did you explain/let rip/other? I would have been so pissed off!

I sometimes get otc meds for the horse/dogs and I’m very careful never to say it’s for the animal. Generally, I know fine well that the vet would give me exactly the same thing at vast expense (eg chlorophenicol for conjunctivitis)

My babies body ? Jesus Christ are the pro lifers out in force . I’m. Ore than a bloody incubator .

When 39 +6 with my 3rd lo, I asked for canesten at the pharmacy to try and get rid of thrush before dd2 arrived, only to be told that they couldn’t sell it to me as it might bring on early labour. Oh how I chortled.

I was prescribed Canestan for thrush in my previous pregnancy so pretty confident it was fine, this time round I just sent DH to get it from the pharmacy and not to tell them I was pregnant. I mentioned it to the midwife expecting a ticking off and she just said ‘very sensible’!

YADNBU. Can't believe the stories here! I have talked to at least two pregnant women with hayfever in the last couple of weeks who have been told by the GP that they can't have anything for it NHS website says otherwise...