Having a safe pregnancy

Having A Safe Pregnancy

Dr. Mona Marabani
Rheumatologist
President, Australian Rheumatology Association

The important thing about pregnancy now in rheumatic diseases is that we know the important thing is that we can give people treatment during pregnancy if they need it but also the critical thing is to get people into remission or controlled as well as possible before we contemplate pregnancy. So yes it has to be planned out a little bit more, in a little bit more detail than the average person, but it’s absolutely achievable. We know which drugs are safe in pregnancy and which drugs are not. We know that for people who have bad disease we are able to continue to treat them with drugs during pregnancy if necessary. But I also acknowledge the need of many, many women if they possibly can be drug-free during a pregnancy to be drug-free during a pregnancy. So we need to address all these issues with you when you come to make that decision about having a baby.

Assoc. Professor Peter Youssef
Rheumatologist, Royal Prince Alfred Institute of Rheumatology and Orthopaedics, Sydney
Chair – Arthritis Australia Scientific Advisory Committee

It is also important to note that pregnancy often reduces disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. So that the disease is better controlled just from the fact of being pregnant.

Dr. Mona Marabani
Rheumatologist
President, Australian Rheumatology Association

We know that a lot of people get better spontaneously in pregnancy. A lot of women get better on no medication; you can taper off everything and they’ll be well and I think that’s what a lot of women want and hope for: a drug-free pregnancy.

Suzie Edward May
Member, Arthritis Australia National Consumer Reference Group (rheumatoid arthritis)
Author of ‘Arthritis, pregnancy and the path to parenthood’

Some women go into remission during pregnancy. Some women don’t. I didn’t. during my research I had a lot of women write to me and say I’d love to have 12 children because then I can be pregnant and be in remission for 12 years because they had such wonderful experiences during pregnancy and had no pain. That’s not the case for everyone.

Assoc. Professor Peter Youssef
Rheumatologist, Royal Prince Alfred Institute of Rheumatology and Orthopaedics, Sydney
Chair – Arthritis Australia Scientific Advisory Committee

It is very important to work closely with patients who want to become pregnant because of some of the effects of our medications. Some medications may need to be ceased several months before patients become pregnant and other medications may need to be ceased once the patients become pregnant. Some medications can only be used during a certain part of pregnancy. However the important thing to know is that most patients will be able to become pregnant and will have a normal pregnancy.