Is chemotherapy safe for your baby at early stages of pregnancy?

 

Cancer is an abnormal disease which creates many queries related to diagnosis. Sometimes these questions pour out, one after another and many more. Other times, the stream of questions is too overwhelming to articulate the hundreds of answers clouding the mind. Approximately every year 3000 women diagnosed with cancer will have just one question: ‘Can I opt for chemotherapy?’

Though an apparently very small number of women battle cancer while they are pregnant. This simplifies that any woman who is pregnant or going to be pregnant should be aware and well prepared of the cancer symptoms that may occur during a pregnancy or before pregnancy. Whether you believe or not, to be at risk for developing cancer, knowing the answer to this question could provide to be lifesaving.

 

When chemotherapy can be started during pregnancy

You can usually start the treatment after you attain 14 weeks pregnant.  At this stage, research and scientific studies shows most of the chemotherapy drugs will not harm the baby. Doctors avoid prescribing certain chemotherapy drugs that may be harmful to the baby during pregnancy.

The placenta acts as a barrier between mother and the baby. Some drugs or vitamins cannot pass through the placenta. Others only pass through in very small amounts through the porous membrane of the placenta.

Having chemotherapy

You can have chemotherapy as an injection or a drip (infusion) into a vein, or as tablets. This will be the same for women who are not pregnant also.

When to stop chemotherapy

Chemotherapy treatment is not usually given after you reach 37 weeks of pregnancy. You should have a break between the last dose of chemotherapy and your expected date of delivery. This avoids the downfall of blood cell levels when the baby is being. Having a low level of blood cells is a temporary side effect of chemotherapy, however if the treatment is continued it may causes anemia in babies. Some women can have more chemotherapy after the baby is born.

If baby is born soon after your treatment of chemotherapy finishes, doctors can give you drugs to boost your immune system. This helps in fighting infections.

Chemotherapy during Pregnancy Doesn't Cause Complications

Infants whose mothers are treated with chemotherapy technique weighed less than those that who weren't exposed to chemotherapy, but they were at low risk of birth defects of babies, blood disorders or loss of hair.

According to German Breast Group, which led the studies and survey, premature birth is not the chemotherapy treatment which was responsible for babies being born at a low birth weight and other complicated problems. Greater and major complications were reported in the group of infants exposed to chemotherapy treatment than in the group of infants who are not exposed to chemotherapy, this study revealed. Although, most of the complications were reported in babies who were delivered prematurely, heedlessly with the exposure to chemotherapy. Incidences of pregnant women with tumor are growing and it may be because many women are delaying their childbirth until later in their lives.

The studies conducted by the German Breast Group confirmed that other research indicating that chemotherapy treatments carry lesser risks to an unborn child than was originally assumed. But more research and studies needs to be done on the potential physical and mental effects of chemotherapy drugs on a child later in its life.