Every woman in the position should be aware that any medicine she takes will have an effect on the fetus, as many chemicals can pass through the placenta to the developing baby. Their embryotoxic and fetotoxic effects often lead to fetal death, delayed skeletal development, reduced body weight gain, or increased perinatal pathologies.
Relevance of the problem
According to the study, approximately 1% in the development of fetal abnormalities is associated with uncontrolled medication from the mother. Therefore, doctors and scientists around the world make it a priority to study medicines and their effect on the baby’s body in the womb and on the body of a pregnant woman. Different periods of pregnancy should be taken into account.
Many research centers conduct studies on the embryotoxic and teratogenic effects of drugs on the embryo and fetus. Their fetotoxic effect on its development also occurs.
Thus, the embryotoxic effect in pharmacology is the ability of a drug during its entry into the mother's body to have a fatal effect on the fetus, which leads to its death or developmental abnormality.
What is embolytic action?
The embryotoxic effect is the defeat of an unimplanted blastocyst, which often leads to its death. Such an effect is caused by drugs such as barbiturates, salicylates, atimetabolites, sulfonamides, nicotine and other similar substances.
Embryotoxicity means the effect of drugs from the mother’s body on the embryo and fetus, which lead to its death or developmental abnormalities.
The teratogenic effect is the effect on the fetus of medications or biological substances, which causes disturbances in the development of the fetus, and subsequently the child suffers from congenital malformations.
How do drugs affect the baby’s body in the womb
Depending on the mechanism of action of drugs on the fetus, three directions can be distinguished:
- The first is those that cross the placenta and are not able to directly affect the developing fetal organism.
- The second - through a transplacental transition, which means they have a direct effect on the fetus.
- Thirdly, those that, penetrating the placenta, tend to accumulate in the body of the unborn child.
It is worth noting that the toxicity of the drug does not affect the way it enters the fetus.
Teratogenic embryotoxic effect on the fetus can be exerted not only by the drugs that a woman takes during pregnancy, but also by the means that were used before conception. As an example, we can take retinoids, which belong to teratogens with a long latent period. Accumulating in a woman’s body, they can further influence the development of the fetus.
And even taking medications by the father of the child can affect the congenital pathology of the crumbs. Most often these are the following medications:
- substances intended for anesthesia;
- antiepileptic drugs;
- Diazepam
- Spironolactone;
- Cimetidine.
Pregnancy risk classification of drugs
The American Food and Drug Administration - the FDA, has developed a special classification of drugs that are the most and least dangerous for the fetus when it is carried:
- And - these include medicines that are not able to affect the body of the mother and child. Ongoing studies have ruled out this risk. B - drugs that can be taken in limited quantities, with no subsequent abnormalities in the development of the fetus. Animal experiments have ruled out any effect of these drugs on the growing organism inside the mother.
- C - these medications, when conducting experiments on animals, had a teratogenic or embryotoxic effect on the embryo. They harm the body of the child, but have a reversible consequence. Often the development of abnormalities in the fetus was not observed.
- D - drugs from this group lead to irreversible consequences and congenital anomalies in the child. When prescribing such drugs, the doctor must correlate their benefits and the subsequent risks to the child.
- X - this category of medications can cause persistent abnormalities in the development of the fetus and congenital malformations, since there is a proven teratogenic or embryotoxic effect on both animals and humans. Their intake during pregnancy is strictly contraindicated.
What causes the use of various groups of drugs during pregnancy
Here is the embryotoxic effect in the fetus that various medications can cause:
- Aminopterin - the fetus can die in the womb. If this did not happen, then multiple anomalies of its development occur, mainly they affect the facial part of the skull.
- Androgens - limbs grow poorly. The trachea, esophagus and cardiovascular system are damaged.
- Diethylstilbestrol - changes in the sexual plan in a child, in girls it is adenocarcinoma of the vagina and changes in the cervix, in boys - pathological conditions of the penis and testicles.
- Disulfiram - the drug leads to miscarriages, clubfoot and splitting of the limbs in a child.
- Estrogens - cause congenital heart defects, feminization in boys, vascular disorders.
- Quinine - if the fetus does not die, then subsequent development of glaucoma, mental retardation, otogoxicity, anomalies in the development of the genitourinary system are possible.
- Trimethadione - mental retardation, abnormalities in the development of the heart and blood vessels, trachea and esophagus.
- Raloxifene - disorders in the reproductive system.
These are just examples of embryotoxic action, in fact, the list can be continued for a long time, since there are a lot of drugs.
Medicines with teratogenic effects
These include:
- "Streptomycin" - the drug leads to deafness.
- "Lithium" - leads to heart ailments, the development of goiter, hypotension, cyanosis.
- "Imipramine" - neonatal distress syndrome, leg defects, breathing problems, tachycardia, problems with urination.
- "Aspirin" - persistent pulmonary hypertension, various bleeding. Including intracranial.
- "Warfarin" - convulsions and bleeding, which often lead to fetal death, embryopathy, optic nerve atrophy, developmental retardation.
- "Ethosuximide" - the appearance of the child changes, his forehead is set low. Appearance acquires Mongoloid features, a dermoid fistula, a delay in mental and physical development, the presence of an extra nipple.
- "Reserpine" - ototoxicity.
- “Busulfan” - development occurs with a delay, as in the womb. So in the subsequent observed clouding of the cornea.
The effect of alcohol on fetal development
In addition to the fact that there is a concept of the teratogenic and embryotoxic effect of drugs on the embryo and fetus, the negative effect of alcohol, tobacco and narcotic drugs can be noted.
A woman who drinks alcohol during pregnancy, even in small doses, risks not only her health, but also the health of her baby.
The most common complications include:
- Miscarriages are 2 times more likely.
- A slow birth process, which in the future brings various complications.
- Other complications during childbirth.
Subsequently, the child may experience such negative manifestations:
- 1/3 of children have fetal alcohol syndrome ;
- in 1/3 cases toxic prenatal changes are observed;
- and only a third of the children born will develop without any particular visible complications.
Fetal alcohol syndrome
It is characterized by three main qualities:
- delay in physical development;
- mental retardation;
- specific appearance, characterized by a narrow forehead, narrow palpebral fissure, short nose, microcephaly.
These consequences can be prevented if you do not drink alcohol during the gestation period.
The consequences of the child’s alcohol syndrome may become dull as they grow, but will not completely disappear. Such a child is hyperactive, his attention is impaired, which affects his social adaptation.
Also, the characteristic features of such a child may be aggressiveness, obstinacy, poor night sleep.
Embryotic action of tobacco (nicotine)
Tobacco negatively affects the development of the fetus, and not only when a woman smokes herself. If she is a passive smoker, that is, she is in a room next to smokers and inhales the smell of nicotine, she already harms her unborn child.
The complications of this behavior include:
- Vaginal bleeding.
- Poor placental circulation.
- The risk of a delayed birth process also increases.
- Risk of spontaneous abortion and premature birth.
- The risk of detachment of the placenta.
Tobacco can affect the fetus as follows:
- Slow development of the fetus, at birth, such children have low growth and weight.
- There is a risk of developing congenital malformations.
- The possibility of sudden death of a newborn is doubled.
- Subsequent development risks, this can be manifested in a delay in mental and physical development, a tendency to respiratory diseases, and unpredictability in the behavior of the child.
Conclusion
The embryotoxic effect of many medicinal and non-drug substances can lead to severe irreversible consequences. You must know before taking medications that they will negatively affect the embryo or fetus. Therefore, on the part of doctors, it is recommended that young women take a responsible approach to the birth of a child, prepare for the birth process before conception, read the relevant literature, regularly undergo examination, and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Only under such conditions there is a chance to give birth to a healthy baby, without any deviations. Every time you try to take a drug, remember the embryotoxic effect of drugs, this may affect your unborn baby. Therefore, discuss your every step with your doctor.