Antidepressant drugs cause premature births

A study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology showed a five-fold increase in premature delivery when pregnant women take anti depressants (SSRIs) during their second or third trimesters, than those not taking them. Study included Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac and Benzodiazepines. The latter causing the most damage.

Dr. Ronit Calderon-Margalit, lead researcher from Hebrew University’s Hadassah School of Public Health, said it was unclear whether or not the benefit being derived from taking the drugs is worth the significant increase in birthing complications. He believes that further studies needs to evaluate the necessity of pregnant women needing to use such drugs.
SSRIs have been implicated in causing all sorts of mental problems, like psychosis, paranoia, and abnormal behavior. However withdrawal from taking SSRIs is often more dangerous that actually taking them, requiring careful supervision.

According to a 2001 report in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, over 200,000 people are admitted to U.S. hospitals for antidepressant-associated mania or some other type of psychosis. Shootings, murders, suicides, and other bouts of violence have been documented in thousands of cases as a result of people taking SSRIs. We still don’t know how SSRI usage will affect children from prenatal use through their school years and by the time they become adults.
http://www.expectingfitness.com

Antibiotics during pregnancy:

3.23.10 – Taking antibiotics during pregnancy can increase the risk of birth defects, according to a study by the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

About 30 percent of women take at least one antibiotic between three months before conception and the date of delivery, despite that many of the drugs have not been extensively tested for their safety on developing infants.

18,000 women participated in study that showed that the antibiotics most strongly linked with birth defect risk were the nitrofurantoin and sulfonamide ( “sulfa”) families, including the brand-name drugs Bactrim, Furadantin, Macrobid, Macrodantin and Septra.

Children were born with fatal skull and brain malformation, respiratory problems such as blocked nasal passages (choanal atresia) and abnormal diaphragm openings (diaphragmatic hernia); heart defects such as an abnormally narrow (coarctated) aorta or underdeveloped left side of the heart (hypoplastic left heart syndrome); and shortened or missing limb bones (transverse limb deficiency), cleft lip or palate, congenital heart defects, eye defects and being born missing one or both eyes (anophthalmia).