Yup, just to confirm KateandtheGirls - I use ventolin and becotide for asthma and I've been told that it's perfectly safe. The doses are minute and highly localised - added to that the risks of uncontrolled asthma and it's a no brainer. If you're using it frequently at the moment though, it might be worth seeing your GP or asthma nurse just to check if you don't need a preventer or to up your preventer dose.
A good site for asthma information is Asthma UK (used to be the National Asthma Campaign)
Here's what it says about pregnancy & breastfeeding:
"The nine months of pregnancy are a time of major hormonal upheaval so it is not surprising that many women report changes in their asthma symptoms. But whether they'll improve or get worse is impossible to predict. Some women will be unaffected during one pregnancy yet notice dramatic changes in their condition the next time. To date, no-one knows why this should happen. But what we do know is that it's vital to continue to follow your asthma management plan throughout pregnancy.
A recent study by US doctors uncovered a shocking statistic: more than half of the pregnant women they surveyed stopped taking their asthma medication for fear of harming their unborn child. Yet such fears are groundless. Medication from inhaled preventers and relievers acts only on the lung tissue, so virtually nothing is absorbed into the body, and there's no possibility of it reaching the baby. Steroid tablets are also proven safe during pregnancy at doses of up to 45mg per day, and even higher doses are not necessarily harmful. If asthma is allowed to get out of control during pregnancy, however, there's a chance that the baby could be smaller at birth because it hasn't been getting all the oxygen it needs. So if you try to cut down on medication yourself you could be doing more harm than good.
Many women worry about the chances of their baby having asthma. However, a National Asthma Campaign-funded study at Southampton University research (see Asthma News, issue 49) is suggesting that allergen avoidance during pregnancy and in the first year of life might spare your baby from developing the condition. And of course, it is vitally important not to smoke during pregnancy. This increases the chances of your child developing breathing and other health problems.
Once the baby is born, there is some evidence to suggest that breastfeeding may reduce the risk of your baby developing asthma. A child has a one in ten chance of inheriting the condition from its mother, which rises to one in three if both parents have asthma. But a recent long-term study showed that breastfeeding for the first six months of life significantly reduces the risk of the child's developing allergic breathing problems by age 17, compared to babies who are breastfed for less than six months. As with pregnancy, there's no need to worry about your own medications affecting your baby. Usual doses of inhaled steroids don't enter the bloodstream so won't affect breast milk. And while steroids taken by mouth can be found in breast milk, they are in quantities too small to harm the baby."