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Predicting infant risk of exposure to mother’s medication
Study is first to examine drug exposure in both the womb and breast milk
A new mathematical model developed at the University of Waterloo can determine a baby’s overall drug exposure when their mother is taking medication. This is the first study to include drug transfer from the umbilical cord and through breastfeeding in determining the baby's total drug levels.
The research team from the School of Pharmacy at Waterloo looked specifically at Levetiracetam. It is a drug commonly prescribed long term for women with epilepsy, yet there was minimal data on the risk of adverse effects on breastfed infants.
Breastfeeding mothers often face the hard choice of continuing to take their medication and risking harm to their babies due to exposure during feeding, or stopping potentially life-saving treatments. The World Health Organization and UNICEF recommend that infants breastfeed within an hour of birth and do so exclusively for six months.
“A mother can be at serious risk if Levetiracetam is stopped, affecting her ability to care for her infant,” said Shirley Wang, a PhD student in the School of Pharmacy at Waterloo. “Our research shows that the probability of negative effects on a breastfeeding infant is very low for typically prescribed doses of Levetiracetam.”