Where do doctors and nurses find out about using medicines during pregnancy?
Doctors and nurses get information from medicine labels and packages, textbooks, and research journals. They also share knowledge with other doctors and nurses and talk to the people who make and sell medicines. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the part of our country’s government that controls the medicines that can and can’t be sold in the United States. The FDA lets a company sell a medicine in the United States if it is safe to use and works for a certain problem. Companies that make medicines usually have to show FDA doctors and scientists whether birth defects or other problems occur in baby animals when the medicine is given to pregnant animals. Most of the time, drugs are not studied in pregnant women. The FDA works with the drug companies to make clear and complete labels. But in most cases, there is not much information about how a medicine affects pregnant women and their growing babies. Many prescription medicine labels include the results of studies done in pregna
