Amazing but true!! This is a major victory. Vogue is as mainstream and (frankly disgusting) a magazine as you can get, but it’s so outrageously popular that this is really amazing and wonderful and may save hundreds of babies lives. It talks about the risks of taking medications in general while pregnant.
With all the controversy around the Mother’s Act this article cannot come out soon enough, because women WILL be drugged more often if this law passes.
The PDF file can be viewed here.
Thanks Amy at The Bitter Pill.
One word: “thalidomide”.
Thalidomide was marketed as a safe and effective treatment for morning sickness.
In fact this drug caused the most horrific plague of birth deformities the world has ever known.
Has Big Pharma learned a thing from the Thalidomide scandal?
Obvious not.
A youtube by Amy Philo as to why antidepressants are dangerous for mothers and children.
Congress and everyone else can debate and Bloviate on Health Care Reform until doomsday, but the only remedy for this horror which will truly reform anything is Criminalization at the Federal level demanding 20 years for Anyone – Doctors, Universities, Regulators, etc – who take 1 Cent from a manufacturer in the form of CME, Speakers Fees, Honoraria, Research Grants, Drug Application Fees, Cushy Jobs after their Govt tenure, etc.
Will that cut back on the development of new medicines? Yes. And considering the Destruction and Havoc these chemicals are Wrecking, ….. with Nothing approaching a benefit, ……. that happy circumstance can only be a good thing.
this is a comment I left on a post at psych central where Grohol is supporting the mothers act:
you know if mothers give natural childbirth and didn’t get loaded up with SYNTHETIC hormones the natural hormone Oxytocin is released and allows for normal bonding and makes the mother feel HIGH!! And HAPPY…we mess with nature it messes with us.
See the documentary The Business of Being Born—beautiful movie.
I’m super heavy into the loss of natural childbirth being a big part of the escalating mental health crisis…
that being said, there is no denying mothers and fathers, for that matter, need support early on and should get it, but legislating screening that encourages drugging is not the way to go.
most of the people opposed to this bill have horror stories of the drugs causing havoc and once they got off them they felt much better…these are women who suffered from the TREATMENT.
how many women will be told of the risks of SSRIs?? If it’s anything like the rest of psychiatry most won’t be told.
I actually have fantasies of becoming a doula/midwife to help women birth naturally and take on this fight from a beautiful happy place where mothers and babies are supported naturally and mental health created by respecting nature.
This ugly side of fighting the system is getting to me.
That’s the same feeling I got while reading the article, it was written from the standpoint of everyone assuming the meds would be ok and being shocked that they are not. I think one of the main problems is the chemical imbalance advertising myths which promote the concept that the drugs balance out your hormones. I think a lot of people imagine them to be like taking thyroid medication. However the pills are not serotonin pills, and even if they were, nobody is testing serotonin levels to see what’s normal or safe before administering them. The pills actually damage the receptors that allow you to metabolize serotonin from your body so slowly these babies are being “bathed” in excessive amounts of serotonin, which is actually a poison in high amounts. Google Serotonin Syndrome. Poor little babies. It just breaks your heart.
My own doctor said that Zoloft was so safe for breastfeeding that it would “make my baby happy too.” Of course, we know better now, but at the time I trusted him and thought he would never want me to get hurt so I could believe what he said.
Here’s more info on the consequences to babies:
http://tinyurl.com/IndiVid
In Memory of Indiana (Effexor Baby)
http://psychdrugdangers.com/MothersAct.html
MedWatch reports – deaths, birth defects etc. from prenatal / neonatal exposure to psych drugs.
I had babies in the early ’80s and even tylenol, antibiotics, and caffeine/drinks were a no-no. I can’t imagine why it has turned to drugs are remotely safe while growing a human being! I never even used pain killers during childbirth. Anyone wanting a reminder of Paxil and babies, remember Shelly Hart’s story (google ‘shelly hart paxil’).
I am flabbergasted that NOW docs are saying it is okay to take these meds. Twenty-five years ago they told women NOT to take mental health meds while they were pregnant.
I didn’t take ANY meds of any kind….and the father of my baby worried when I took so much as an Asprin.
What in the world?
Thank you, Amy
this positive note is a good ending to my day.