Gastroenterology

Managing Gastrointestinal Conditions in Pregnancy and Lactation

MotherToBaby supports gastroenterologists in managing gastrointestinal diseases during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. We understand the challenges that you face when deciding on treatment courses when your patient is pregnant or breastfeeding. Care of people who are pregnant and/or lactating with serious conditions like IBD, constipation, or GERD is further complicated by the physiological changes of pregnancy that may alter symptoms, severity, or treatment needs. Our resources will help you weigh the risks and benefits to both your patient who is pregnant and their baby as you determine a treatment plan that maximizes disease management and minimizes maternal and fetal/infant risk. 

We are also dedicated to furthering the information and understanding of medication safety in pregnancy through our observational MotherToBaby Pregnancy Studies. We are proud to lead more than half of all Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-mandated pregnancy registries conducted in the U.S., including studies on IBD treatments. MotherToBaby Pregnancy Studies are rigorously designed cohort studies that aim to provide critically needed product safety information – and your patient referrals make all the difference. With your referral, you are helping us generate data that will lead to improved product safety information in pregnancy, thereby providing you and your IBD patients with the evidence you need to make more informed treatment decisions.

Pregnancy is a challenging period for the gastroenterologist. Chronic gastrointestinal diseases require treatment maintenance during this period, raising the challenging question whether outcomes beneficial to the [parent] may be harmful for the fetus.

— Gomes et al., 2018

Explore how we can help you and your pregnant and breastfeeding patients by providing no-cost exposure risk assessments, patient education materials, observational studies to monitor pregnancy outcomes, and more.

LactRx App

Download our LactRx app for on-the-go access to the Library of Medicine’s LactMed database for current information on gastroenterology medications as well as other drugs and vaccinations to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed.

Partners

• Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation
• MyHealthTeams
• PatientsLikeMe
• Patient Education Genius
• Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
• Society for Birth Defects Research & Prevention
• The Mighty