Prescription drug use in lactating mothers: an experience at a referral hospital and in a community in India.

The aim of the study was to investigate the extent of prescription drugs administered for common disorders during the post partum period. This is a prospective survey of disorders and drug use in 1) immediate postpartum mothers (n = 200) admitted to the maternity wards, 2) in post-natal hospital follow-up clinic (n = 200) and in 3) the rural home based community (n = 100). A pretested questionnaire was filled in by medical officers after interviewing the mothers. The mean age of the mothers was 25 years and a literacy rate of 50% above the 10th grade. Over 80% of the women were multigravida in the entire sample; 45% underwent Caesarean Section in a hospital; 97.6% had a normal delivery in the community. In the hospital settings 4.1% infants had jaundice and 1% had congenital anomalies. In the community setting, diarrhoea and pneumonia was seen in 2.6% of the infants. Apart from the use of nutritional supplements, such as iron, calcium, multivitamins etc., most commonly prescribed drugs were analgesics (in 70% of patients in the hospital settings, 56% of the patients in the postnatal clinic and 37.6% patients in the community), and antibiotics (90% of the patients in the hospital settings, 86% of the patients in the postnatal clinic and 13% of the community based patients). Antihypertensives agents (2.5% of the patients), digoxin (1.5% of the patients), bronchodilators (1% of the patients) and sedatives (3.5% of the patients) were prescribed to admitted patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)