Rheumatology

Managing Rheumatoid Conditions During Pregnancy & Lactation

MotherToBaby supports rheumatologists in managing rheumatoid 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 lactating with serious conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spondyloarthritis, or lupus 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 RA, JIA, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis 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 patients with the evidence you need to make more informed treatment decisions.

As treatment for rheumatic diseases improves, more [people] with these illnesses are willing and able to start a family. This adds complexity to our treatment of young [people] with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases. We must now address contraception, pregnancy planning, and medication risks early with our patients in order to optimize pregnancy success.

— Mitchell et al., 2010

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 rheumatology medications as well as other drugs and vaccinations to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed.

Partners

• Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance
• Creaky Joints
• MyHealthTeams
• Patient Education Genius
• PatientsLikeMe
• Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
• Society for Birth Defects Research & Prevention
• Spondylitis Association of America
• The Mighty