Abstract
Since pregnant women are just as liable to suffer from infections as their non-pregnant counterparts, antibiotic therapy sometimes cannot be avoided during pregnancy. From the pharmacological point of view, pregnancy represents a unique situation, where the drug simultaneously affects two individuals - the mother and the foetus, and from these two, the foetus is the more vulnerable one.
Teratogenic and toxic effects of antibiotics on the foetus are more or less known and according to those effects the antibiotics are classified into several categories. Drug classification systems help the specialists to choose the safest drugs for pregnant women.
Penicillins, cephalosporins, macrolides and lincosamides are considered safe during pregnancy; tetracyclines are contraindicated. Other antibiotics can be used if no safer drug does exist and the expected benefit is higher than the known risk.
The article focuses on categorisation of antibiotics in pregnancy, along with explanatory information and results of studies