title: Consumer information about prenatal and obstetric drugs.
abstract: This study investigated the amount of information that mothers have about the drugs to which they are exposed during pregnancy and childbirth as well as the correlates of this information, in particular perceived and actual control over life and health-related events. Subjects were 304 randomly chosen inpatients interviewed within 48 hours after childbirth. The results show that mothers know very little about the medications they took prenatally and even less about the medications they were administered during labor and delivery. Failing adequate information, a large number of mothers and babies were exposed to drugs with teratogenic or toxic potential. With but one exception, these drugs had not been approved by the F.D.A. for use in pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Scores on the Rotter Locus of Control Scale reliably predicted prenatal drug information.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004358:Drug Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric / Q000187:drug effects*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000187:drug effects*; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011897:Random Allocation