Abstract
PurposeApproximately 80% of pregnant women use medications. There is a need for evidence based medicines information that provide realistic risk estimates as pregnant and breastfeeding women tend to overestimate the risk of medications. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and future perspectives of an innovative medicines information service aiming to increase empowerment among pregnant and breastfeeding women.DescriptionSafeMotherMedicine (SMM) (www.tryggmammamedisin.no) is a Norwegian medicines information service for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Established in 2011, the service was initially web-based only, in contrast to most teratology information services that at the time mainly operated using telephone and/or e-mail.AssessmentDuring the last eight years, SMM has provided close to 30,000 answers promoting appropriate medication use among pregnant and breastfeeding women. SMM launched a telephone-service in 2016, however, the annual number of questions received through the web-based service continues to increase.ConclusionThe service seems to have fulfilled a previously unmet need of evidence-based, individually tailored information about medications to pregnant and breastfeeding women in Norway. SMM empowers the women to make informed decisions regarding medication use in pregnancy and breastfeeding, thus contributing to person-centred medicine. The web-based design of the service may represent the pregnant and breastfeeding women’s preferred way of communication.
Highlights
What is already known on this subject? Pregnant and breastfeeding women tend to overestimate the risk of use of medications indicating a need for medicines information that provide realistic risk estimates promoting appropriate medication use
The purpose of this paper is to describe a medicines information service that was started as a web-based service only, aiming to increase empowerment among pregnant and breastfeeding women
SafeMotherMedicine (SMM) is run by the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centre (RELIS), which is a Norwegian network of medicines information centres, localised in all four health regions (Schjøtt 2017)
Summary
80% of pregnant women use medications (Nordeng et al 2010; Lupattelli et al 2014b). The benefit of using medications outweighs the potential risks for the fetus. Pregnant women tend to overestimate the risk (Nordeng et al 2010; Widnes and Schjøtt 2017), potentially explaining the low adherence that has been observed among this patient group (Lupattelli et al 2014a). A study that investigated pregnant women’s perception of risk and benefits of medications, found that the risks and benefit scores were significantly inversely correlated (Mulder et al 2017). This implies that clear communication of the benefits of the medications may reduce the women’s risk perception, and increase their empowerment with regard to medications. As there are several health benefits of breastfeeding both for the infant and the mother, the national health authorities guidelines promote exclusive breastfeeding until the infant is 6 months old, followed by continued breastfeeding while gradually introducing solid foods for at least until the infant is 12 months old (The Norwegian Directorate of Health 2017)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
