Medications exposure during pregnancy. A study in a university hospital

To collect informations about drugs prescribed during pregnancy in France we carried out a retrospective survey from august to december 1989. This study was based on a questionnaire at delivery for 225 women. Socio-economic status, obstetrical past history and patterns of prescribing medications were studied. 99.5% of the women were found to have used drugs during pregnancy with a mean of 6.84 medications per woman. There was no influence of age, geographic origins, number of previous pregnancies on drug consumption; socio-professional status was also found to have a poor correlation with drug intake. Patterns of prescribing were compared to those of a previous French study made in 1976: changing pattern of prescribing were found for progestatives, corticoids, neurotropes, aspirin and beta adrenergic agents. We also pointed out that self-administered drugs decreased from 25.9 to 17.9%. This evaluation supports the need of further epidemiological studies in our country.