Drug use in pregnancy at a referral and district hospital in northern India

This is the Indian counterpart of the co-operative study on drug use in pregnancy carried out under the auspices of WHO–EURO and co-ordinated by the Mario Negri Institute, Milan (Italy). In all 1497 pregnant women were interviewed (1000 from the referral hospital and 497 from the city hospital) to collect the information. The mean age of the mothers was 25 years; 50% were hospitalized on the day of delivery; 50% of the deliveries were normal and the other 50% were assisted or operative. Congential malformations were seen in 2.0% of the newborns. The drugs taken throughout pregnancy were tetanus toxoid (TT) and nutritional supplements (iron, folic acid, calcium and multivitamins) and constituted the largest group (35%). Women on chronic therapy for medical or obstetrical problems related to the pregnancy were 1%. Overall 30.5% of the women received drugs during hospitalization for delivery. Local and general anaesthetics and oxytocics were the most used during this period. As the rate of operative deliveries was high 33% of the women received antimicrobials, analgesics and sedatives during puerperium. Nutritional supplements were used extensively during current or planned breast-feeding. The routine use of iron supplements in pregnancy and the high rate of operative deliveries seemed to contrast to other countries which participated in this study.