Prevention of unnecessary pregnancy terminations by counselling women on drug, chemical, and radiation exposure during the first trimester

Journal Article · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Teratology; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/tera.1420410602· OSTI ID:6704113

Koren, G; Pastuszak, A ^[1]

---

1. Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

As part of a new approach to counselling pregnant women concerned about antenatal exposure to drugs, chemicals, or radiation, we measured their tendency to terminate their pregnancy by using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Analysis of 78 cases where women had less than 50% tendency to continue pregnancy before they were advised by us reveals that 61 decided to continue their pregnancy after the consultation (57 normal, healthy infants, four miscarriages) and 17 terminated. Women who continued their pregnancy significantly changed their tendency after we discussed relevant information with them (from 34.3 +/- 2.5% to 84.5 +/- 3.3%, P less than 0.00001), whereas most of those who eventually terminated pregnancy did not change their tendency to continue pregnancy beyond the 50% mark (from 24.8 +/- 5.4% to 45.1 +/- 9.8%) (P greater than 0.1). Only two of the women who terminated their pregnancy were exposed to teratogenic drugs; however, in most other cases, other obvious reasons, unrelated to the exposure in question, were identified by the women as leading reasons for termination. An appropriate intervention in early pregnancy can prevent unnecessary pregnancy terminations by correcting misinformation and thereby decreasing the unrealistically high perception of risk by women exposed to nonteratogens.

• OSTI ID: 6704113
• Journal Information: Teratology; (USA), Vol. 41:6; ISSN 0040-3709
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
IONIZING RADIATIONS
TERATOGENESIS
XENOBIOTICS
ABORTION
FEMALES
FETUSES
PREGNANCY
PRENATAL EXPOSURE
RADIATION HAZARDS
RISK ASSESSMENT
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
RADIATIONS
560151* - Radiation Effects on Animals- Man
560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology