SafeMotherMedicine: Aiming to Increase Women’s Empowerment in Use of Medications During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

Abstract

Abstract Purpose Approximately 80% of pregnant women use medications. There is a need for evidence based medicines information that provide realistic risk estimates as pregnant and breastfeeding women tend to overestimate the risk of medications. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and future perspectives of an innovative medicines information service aiming to increase empowerment among pregnant and breastfeeding women. Description SafeMotherMedicine (SMM) (www.tryggmammamedisin.no) is a Norwegian medicines information service for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Established in 2011, the service was initially web-based only, in contrast to most teratology information services that at the time mainly operated using telephone and/or e-mail. Assessment During the last eight years, SMM has provided close to 30,000 answers promoting appropriate medication use among pregnant and breastfeeding women. SMM launched a telephone-service in 2016, however, the annual number of questions received through the web-based service continues to increase. Conclusion The service seems to have fulfilled a previously unmet need of evidence-based, individually tailored information about medications to pregnant and breastfeeding women in Norway. SMM empowers the women to make informed decisions regarding medication use in pregnancy and breastfeeding, thus contributing to person-centred medicine. The web-based design of the service may represent the pregnant and breastfeeding women’s preferred way of communication.