How To Reduce the Risk of Birth Defects

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

CDC guidelines help women avoid birth defects.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends certain guidelines for expectant mothers to avoid birth defects. Among these guidelines are restrictions on taking medication during the pregnancy.

Folic Acid

First, the CDC recommends that any woman of childbearing age maintain a health intake of folic acid (aka foliate). Women can do this by eating fortified foods, supplements or both. A healthy diet, including dark green vegetables like spinach may satisfy the daily requirements for folic acid. A lack of foliate can lead to several serious birth defects, including spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal column fails to grow over the spine during pregnancy. This is a common but serious side effect. Additionally, other problems, like exposure to teratogenic chemicals can cause this birth defect. The CDC states that women should maintain high foliate levels up to a month before the start of pregnancy, since it takes a while to build up in the body.

Ask About Prescriptions

One of the CDC’s guidelines is to “talk to a health care provider about taking any medications.” This refers to the fact that some drugs, including SSRI antidepressants like Zoloft, have been linked to serious birth defects. Allegedly, taking Zoloft during pregnancy can cause birth defects like heart and skull deformities, some requiring surgical intervention.

The allegation that Zoloft and other SSRIs cause  birth defects has led to multidistrict litigation against the drug manufacturers, alleging that they failed to warn the public about the possible risk of birth defects associated with their products. Multidistrict litigation (MDL) is a type of group lawsuit that has similarities to class action lawsuits.

Plaintiffs in Zoloft lawsuits, Paxil Lawsuits, Lexapro lawsuits and Effexor lawsuits all allege that the drug makers failed to warn that the drug side effects can affect fetuses, leading to congenital defects.

Avoid Alcohol, Tobacco and Street Drugs

Next, the CDC recommends staying away from alcohol, tobacco products, and street drugs during pregnancy. The health effects on mother and child from these drugs are well known. Among the risks of these problems are low birth weight and fetal alcohol syndrome.

General Best Practices

The guidelines also encourage good health practices, like keeping diabetes under control, seeing a physician regularly, and maintaining a healthy weight as means of preventing birth defects. To this effect, the CDC recommends that patients check with their doctors to make sure their vaccines are current, since certain vaccine-preventable diseases can cause birth defects. For example, Rubella (also called German measles) can cause mental retardation and congenital deafness when the mother contracts it during pregnancy.

Explore Your Rights

If you or someone you care about had a child with serious birth defects after taking Zoloft during the pregnancy, you’ve almost certainly been through a trying ordeal. The birth of a child with serious birth defects is emotionally taxing, as it requires new parents to emotionally shift gears from the excitement of having a new baby to coping with the strain of having a sick child. Additionally, this situation has many financial concerns, including medical costs, lost wages, and lost income potential. When facing such challenges, many people feel overwhelmed, or even depressed. But you need to remember that you have rights, and there are steps to take to regain a measure of control over your situation. You can start by visiting the Zoloft & SSRI Antidepressant Birth Defect Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. Here, you can enter information about your situation for a free legal review by a trained expert with a background in this type of litigation.

SOURCE: CDC Guidance for Preventing Birth Defects