Elizabeth Chavez 1-3:50

Summary Asthma is a common pulmonary disease within pregnant women that affects between 412 percent. (Lin, Munsie and Herdt-Losavio) This article discusses and tests if asthma medication used within one month prior to pregnancy through the first trimester is responsible for certain birth defects. The medication works in two ways, as a bronchodilator or antiinflammatories (Lin, Munsie and Herdt-Losavio). The scientists chose to research this because they wanted to know if certain birth defects were caused by the mother taking her asthma medication. They interviewed selected woman that had children with certain birth defects and asked them if they had asthma and if they used their medication while they were pregnant. Shockingly they did not find any significant birth defects caused by the medication. To first understand the study you need to know what asthma is. Asthma is a common obstructive pulmonary disease experienced during pregnancy. Clinical guidelines recommend woman with asthma maintain asthma medication use during pregnancy (Lin, Munsie and HerdtLosavio). Although this study is about asthma with pregnant women, it can affect anyone male or female. The scientists chose to study this topic because so few studies have examined the effects of birth defects of children whose mother took asthma medication while in their first trimester. They wanted to see if certain birth defects were caused by the medication. Epidemiologic studies

suggest that there is an association between some birth defects and asthma medication. Because of this study the scientists thought that the birth defects that that they studied would most likely be caused by the medication. (Lin, Munsie and Herdt-Losavio) In this study they phone interviewed woman who had live births, stillbirths or elective terminations. In the interview they asked the following question, did they use the bronchodilator or anti-inflammatory medication one month prior through the third month of pregnancy. They interviewed 9,579 mothers, only 2,853 infants had one or more birth defects, the remaining were unaffected (Lin, Munsie and Herdt-Losavio). Some mothers reported taking their asthma medication as needed within an unknown time period of use and were excluded from the analysis. They did that so that they could reduce miscalculation. (Lin, Munsie and HerdtLosavio) After they gathered their information they put it all together to get their results. The results that were found stated that there were no connections with the asthma medication and the birth defects that they were studying. However, positive results were found between maternal asthma medication use and isolated esophageal atresia, isolated anorectal atresia and omphalocele. The conclusion is that they found positive associations in some birth defects but not the defects they were studying. Therefore it is possible that they came upon chance findings or it could be a result of maternal asthma severity and related hypoxia instead of medication use. Basically their findings had no change in anything before or after they started their testing and so if you have asthma you should take your medication because nothing is proven to harm your baby. (Lin, Munsie and Herdt-Losavio)

Works Cited
Lin, Shao, et al. "Maternal Asthma Medication Use and the Risk of Selected Birth Defects." (2012): 317325.