Many women stop taking their asthma medication during pregnancy for fear that it would harm the fetus, but doing so might pose a greater risk of slow and abnormal fetal growth, and premature births, an Yilan County doctor said.
For women with asthma, hormonal changes during pregnancy cause the respiratory mucosa to congest, swell and secrete a greater amount of mucus, leading to breathing difficulty and a higher chance of having an asthma attack, Lotung Poh-Ai Hospital vice superintendent Chiu Kuo-chin (邱國欽) said.
Moreover, as the pregnancy progresses, the uterus enlarges and the diaphragm is pushed up against the chest as much as 4cm, leading to reduced lung capacity and more obvious signs of asthma, he said.
According to clinical observations, 30 percent of pregnant women with asthma have experienced moderate to severe asthma symptoms in their lives, Chiu said.
However, more than half of pregnant women with asthma are unwilling to take asthma medication during pregnancy for fear that it could affect their baby, leading to poorly controlled asthma during pregnancy, Chiu added.
However, poorly controlled asthma could instead increase the risk of premature births and affect the normal development of the fetus, he said.
Asthma medications are a category B drug during pregnancy and can be used as long as the patient follows their doctor’s orders and limit usage to within a safe range, Chiu said.
Pregnant women do not need worry too much about hurting their baby and stop taking their medication, he said.
The prevalence rate of asthma in Taiwan is about 8 percent, or between 1.8 million and 1.9 million people, Chiu said.
The prevalence of asthma is slightly higher in women than in men, Chiu said, adding that nearly 1 million women in Taiwan have the condition.
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