With pregnancy being a risk factor, the pandemic put more strain on an already vulnerable group. And without safety data for new vaccines and treatments in pregnancy and breastfeeding, women and their doctors were not able to make informed health choices. This year, the Safe Motherhood Week is targeting this and other inequalities by focusing on upholding material rights in a time of crisis. Which is very much in line with the ConcePTION mission to develop an ecosystem for medicine safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding.
The Safe Motherhood Week puts the spotlight on the fact that access to high quality maternal & newborn care is a basic human right. The same is true for a positive pregnancy experience. But there is often a conflict between the health of the mother, and the fear that the foetus might be harmed. Or that medicines might pass over to the infant through breast milk. For this reason, treatment is often discontinued, or never initiated. But the decisions are seldom evidence based.
The Safe Motherhood Week campaign is sending the message that investing in maternal care also means investing in a better future for everyone. The ConcePTION project wants to extend that call to include safety data about medicine use in both pregnancy and breastfeeding. Bridging the knowledge gap to help women take informed decisions. And giving doctors, midwives, nurses and pharmacists the tools they need to answer questions and offer evidence-based advice.
On our website, you can read more about reporting medicine use in pregnancy, and how we are building a European Breast Milk Collection: A research infrastructure to collect, store and analyse samples of breast milk and blood from mothers who use medicines. You can also read more about the theme of this year’s Safe Motherhood Week campaign on the Maternal Health Synapse website.
By Josepine Fernow