Asthma in pregnancy

Asthma is a chronic condition characterized by breathlessness and attacks of wheezing. A pregnant mother who is asthmatic will inevitably worry about the effect of the condition on the pregnancy and vice versa. This is particularly so in the first pregnancy.

The questions and answers here are bound to clarify the situation for most asthma sufferers. The bottom line remains good asthma control, which naturally hinges on taking medication and other prevention and treatment measures as well as avoiding situations that can provoke an attack.

With asthma, there are usually no additional or special measures required during pregnancy and exceptions to this general rule are few.

For an asthmatic, labor is a time that may conceivably require special measures, both in ensuring certain ideal conditions and avoiding administration of certain types of medication commonly given to other delivering mothers. All these are clearly explained here.

Pre-conception advice for an asthmatic woman

Neither asthma nor the attack-preventing medication in common use has any direct adverse effect on the pregnancy or the baby. The advice is to optimize treatment to ensure good control of asthma before trying to conceive.

Drugs used to prevent asthma attacks in pregnancy

Commonly used is an inhalant steroid called beclomethasone, usually prescribed under a variety of brand names. This is certainly safe for use in pregnancy and there is only minimal absorption from the airway. Beclomethasone is available in brand names including Beconase, Vanceril, Beclovent, Qvar and others.

Other inhalational steroids used in asthma include Budesonide and Fluticasone, also prescribed under a number of brand names icluding Rhinocort (Budesonide); Flovent or Flixotide (Fluticasone). These steroids are also known to be safe.

Drugs to prevent asthma attacks

Sodium cromoglycate, popularly known as Intal®, is used to prevent attacks. It is safe to use in pregnancy.

Also used for preventing attacks is Ipratropium (Atrovent®). It has no known adverse effect on the pregnancy or the fetus.

Drugs such as Salmeterol (Serevent®) have been in use only in the last few years and even though there has been no report or any indication of any ill-effect on pregnancy, the data is considered to be insufficient to advice on their safety.

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