Original Articles
Mary Jayasheela, M. Purna Chan
Abstract
Pregnancy is associated with physiological changes in the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drugs. Also, use of drugs in pregnancy poses great risk to the mother and fetus. It therefore requires special care to prescribe drugs to pregnant women. The main objective of this study was to explore drug utilization in pregnant women attending a private sector tertiary healthcare institution. This was a cross-sectional case study in women attending outpatient clinic, Unit I, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences. The required information obtained from their prescriptions and 174 case notes was collected in a structured data collection sheets and the results were analysed using microsoft office. There were 80 (45.9%) primigravidae, 94 (54%) multigravidae and 69 (39.6%) women were in the second trimester of pregnancy. Most women (57.4%) were between 21−25 years of age. Average number of drugs prescribed per prescription was 2.4, encounter with antibiotics and injections was 4.5% and 9.1% respectively. The second trimester accounts for most of the prescriptions (36.2%). Iron/folic acid preparations (39.71%) were the most frequently prescribed drugs. Cefixime was the most prescribed antibiotic while paracetamol was the most commonly prescribed analgesic. The results of the present study are encouraging. WHO recommended guidelines were strictly adhered to. Most of the prescribed drugs were in the FDA risk categories A-C, which are safe to be used in pregnancy.