BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Rates of adult women receiving contraceptive provision when simultaneously prescribed a known teratogen are alarmingly low. The prevalence of this behavior among pediatric providers and their adolescent patients is unknown. The objective of this study was to describe pediatric provider behaviors for prescribing teratogens concurrently with counseling, referral, and/or ...

BACKGROUND Warning symbols are used on teratogenic medications to communicate the message that women should (1) not take that medication if they may already be pregnant, and (2) not get pregnant while taking that medication. Communications research indicates that people interpret symbols or pictures in different ways. Other studies have shown that patients do not always receive education materi...

Occasionally there is a drug whose record in pregnancy is so frequently associated with adverse outcome of so specific a pattern that it becomes clear that its use must be restricted before scientific proof from epidemiological studies is obtained. I believe this to be the case with the drug class of ACEIs. There are mammalian models suggesting substantial fetotoxicity in a dose-related fashion...

The potential effects of cigarette smoke exposure on reproductive outcomes are a major scientific and public health concern, as evidenced by the myriad of published studies on outcomes ranging from germ cell morphology to morbidity among subsequent generations of offspring. Although the prevalence of maternal smoking has decreased over the past two decades, ,15% of women smoke throughout pregna...

Toluene embryopathy is characterised by microcephaly, central nervous system dysfunction, attentional deficits and hyperactivity, developmental delay with greater language deficits, minor craniofacial and limb anomalies, and variable growth deficiency. Previously, three affected children, born to women who inhaled toluene regularly throughout pregnancy, have been reported. Two more cases are de...

BACKGROUND Teratogen information services have been developed around the world to disseminate information regarding the safety of maternal exposures during pregnancy. The Motherisk Program in Toronto, Canada, fields thousands of these inquiries per year. Our primary objective was to evaluate the perception and utilization of information received from us by physicians. Our secondary objective wa...

STUDIES conducted during the past 10 to 15 years primarily in amphibian and chick embryos have led to a controversy over the identity of substances principally responsible for induction and early differentiation. That ribonucleoproteins are most directly involved is widely accepted. However, the question of which is most important ribonucleic acid (RNA) or protein has been the major point of di...