Exposure to Psychotropic Medications and Other Substances during Pregnancy and Lactation: A Handbook for Health Care Providers

Developed through a partnership between Motherisk and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

A great deal of misinformation exists about women’s use of substances during pregnancy and lactation. A health care provider’s challenge is to know the true risks and benefits, both to the mother and to her fetus or baby, of taking versus stopping the use of a medication or other substance. Yet the average provider is not well equipped to give the best advice to women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and exposed to psychotropics.

• “Is it ever safe to drink alcohol when breastfeeding?”
• “What are the risks to the baby if the mother uses cannabis while pregnant or breastfeeding?”
• “Are the effects of smoking different during pregnancy versus during breastfeeding?”
• “What is the effect of cocaine on the fetus or neonate?”
• “If a woman stops taking an antidepressant when she becomes pregnant, how will this affect her and the fetus?”
• “Can a woman safely breastfeed her baby when taking codeine?”

Exposure to Psychotropic Medications and Other Substances during Pregnancy and Lactation: A Handbook for Health Care Providers is a convenient source of evidence-based information and recommendations on these and many other questions for primary care physicians, psychiatrists, pharmacists, obstetricians, midwives, public health nurses and nurse practitioners.

The handbook:

• details the properties and effects of many psychotropic medications and other substances, and provides recommendations for how to advise women using these substances
• dispels common myths about drug exposure during pregnancy and lactation
• discusses key principles for clinical approaches to working with pregnant or breastfeeding women who use psychotropic medications or other substances
• reviews the concepts of addiction, dependence and abuse
• covers screening best practices and provides screening tools
• explores the critical therapeutic role that all health professionals can play in helping women move toward better health outcomes for themselves and their babies.

 

• ISBN 978-0-88868-601-5 • 115 pages • coil bound
• published 2007 • product code P134
• Free in Canada* (international orders $29.95 plus applicable shipping and handling costs)

Download a PDF version of the order form for Exposure to Psychotropic Medications and Other Substances during Pregnancy and Lactation: A Handbook for Health Care Providers.

* The production of this handbook has been made possible through a financial contribution from Health Canada.

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