What antibiotics can I use for pregnant women?

The attitude to antibiotics in many expectant mothers is sharply negative: it is believed that they can harm the baby. But these fears are justified only by self-medication or uncontrolled admission. In the first trimester of pregnancy, antibiotics for a future mother are prescribed only in the most extreme cases: acute cholecystitis, acute appendicitis, peritonitis, pneumonia, bacterial infections of the gastrointestinal tract (salmonellosis, yersiniosis).

During this period, the placenta is formed and all the organs and tissues of the child are laid, so the risk of developing malformations in the baby is maximal. What antibiotics to take the pregnant woman, find out in the article on the topic "What antibiotics can I use for pregnant women".

With this in mind, doctors prescribe the safest forms of antibiotics that have been tested by time. In the II and III semesters, the cause for the use of these drugs may be exacerbations of chronic diseases such as pyelonephritis and cystitis, "awakened" infections, sexually transmitted infections (chlamydia, ureaplasmosis, gonococcal infection), and chorioamnionitis - inflammation of the membranes due to intrauterine infection . After the 12th week, when the most important stage of the development of the baby is passed, the list of drugs used to treat future mothers can be expanded. There are several types of antibiotics, and not all of them are allowed for use during pregnancy. By the mechanism of action on pathogens of infections, these drugs are bactericidal and bacteriostatic. The first kill harmful microbes, the second stop their growth. The spectrum of action of antibiotics can also be different. By this parameter, they are divided into 5 classes, each of which fights against a certain type of pathogenic bacteria. And, finally, antibiotics differ in their chemical composition, decaying into 12 groups. Most of them have an adverse effect on the body of a woman, and on the development of the child. Three groups of antibiotics that do not have bad effects on the baby are the future moms: a group of penicillins (penicillin, amoxicillin, oxacillin), a group of cephalosparins (cefazolin, cefotaxime) and a macrolide group (erythromycin, josa-mizin). In the first trimester, when the baby is most vulnerable, doctors try to get by with penicillins and cephalosporins. After the 12th week, macrolides may be put to use. But regardless of the term, the drug should be selected only by a doctor.

The remaining groups of antibiotics for pregnant women are contraindicated, and for that there are compelling reasons. Aminoglycosides (streptomycin, gentamicin) disrupt the development of the kidneys and hearing aids of the child. Sulfonamides (which include, in particular, popular with the treatment of bronchitis biseptol) are able to provoke severe damage to the hematopoietic system. Tetracyclines, familiar to many from childhood (tetracycline, doxycycline, vibramycin), can damage the liver and moms and the baby, and the baby can cause irreversible damage to the tooth enamel and slow the growth of bones. However, if the question arises about life and death, doctors save a woman by any means, regardless of contraindications. The use of drugs dangerous for the baby, may become necessary for infections that threaten death (sepsis, severe pneumonia, meningitis). At critical moments in the immune system triggered by the instinct of self-preservation, so the woman's body sometimes gets rid of pregnancy, and the medicine has nothing to do with it.

A large dose

When appointing a future mother of any drug, including an antibiotic, doctors have to take into account important changes that occur in her body. During pregnancy, the volume of circulating blood increases, and the kidneys begin to take the medicine out faster. For this reason, to achieve a therapeutic effect, doctors sometimes need to increase either the dose of the drug or the frequency of its administration. That at such volumes and the schedule the medicine has appeared as much as possible harmless, it is desirable to make the analysis on sensitivity to antibiotics - bacteriological crop. The material for research is taken from the habitats of the bacterium that caused the disease. It can be sowing from the throat, sowing the microflora of the vagina from the cervix, sowing urine or blood. But the results have to wait quite a long time (from 3 to 10 days), therefore in emergency situations, there is simply no time to conduct such an analysis.

As with any medicine, every antibiotic has side effects. Most often these drugs cause allergies. This is due to the fact that throughout life we ​​encounter them more often than we think. Antibiotics are prescribed for angina, many "childhood" and intestinal infections. These drugs are actively treated by livestock, so they are present in milk and meat, which we eat. Over the years, the body has time to develop antibiotics for an immune response in the form of an allergy, and in this case doctors have to more carefully choose a medicine. Another minus of antibiotics: they kill not only harmful bacteria, but also destroy useful microbial flora in the intestine and vagina. This can lead to a weakened immunity, and then begin intestinal dysbiosis or intestinal disorders (constipation, diarrhea). Fortunately, it is much easier to eliminate this trouble: it is sufficient in parallel with taking antibiotics and taking probiotics for 2 weeks after the end of the course (Lineks, LEK, Bifiform, Ferrosan, Bifidumbacterin, Acipol, Atzilact) - drugs that restore flora of the intestine and vagina, and eat more dairy products. Now we know which antibiotics can be used by pregnant women.