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Comment by KingMachiavelli | Hacker News Reader

This is extremely concerning since the two obvious alternatives, aspirin and ibuprofen, are already considered unsafe during pregnancy.

Without a decent alternative, the best we can probably do is to limit the dose and duration of use. This policy is probably the best for any medication during pregnancy and childhood.

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Ibuprofen is considered safe in the first half of the pregnancy, significant risks start only after week 28 [1]. It's also considered safe when nursing.

[1]: https://www.embryotox.de/arzneimittel/details/ibuprofen/

Ibuprofen, and other NSAIDs, are not without their problems.

Increased risks of heart attack and stroke, hypertension, kidney damage.

Surprise. Heart attack, stroke, hypertension, kidney damage are also risk factors of NOT taking NSAIDs for the reasons people commonly take NSAIDs for.

No, the best we can do is not take any pain relievers and suffer through the pain.

Probably just not take anything that can alter body functions in a significant manner.

9 months without any medication

Yes, it’s quite reasonable considering the end result.

Really? At what size of an effect of increased risk of ADHD, obesity, etc. do we say that a non-tangible amount of pain should be endured?

IMO the biggest benefit of studies like this is to discourage pointless use of OTC painkillers. These painkillers are pretty weak anyway so if you old have mild discomfort or find that your pain isn't responding to the drug this is yet another reason to not just 'pop an asprin' (or ibuprofen, Tylenol, etc.) at the slightest bit of discomfort or even taking it regularly without good reason. I have seen even young people just get in the habit of taking ibuprofen, Benadryl, etc. multiple times a week or even daily which just seems excessive.

On the other hand, we are reaching the point where everything is a compromise. If you are pregnant AND working I am going to take a gamble and guess that OTC pain meds are pretty much par for the course.

This attitude of "don't do anything unsafe" often has adverse effects on physical health ("what if too much exercice affected the baby ?") and overall mental health.

Depression leading to miscarriage is also a possible outcome.

Honestly this can all be traced back to the fact that women and pregnancy is understudied in medicine. We wouldn’t be forcing people to go 9 months with a significantly reduced quality of life if studying female reproductive health was more prioritized.

I completely disagree. Pregnancy, child rearing and care have been extensively studied. At a certain point, the fledgling life within takes precedence over discomfort of the mother.

When you say “we”, I assume that means you’re a woman who has given birth without painkillers?

Or a child of such woman? Or... The society as a whole has an interest in keeping itself healthy. We should look for the solution together.

I think they were remarking that saying "we should suffer trough the pain" is very cheap to do if you're not a woman who knows the pain herself.

I do not think it is about the form. I believe it is about whether we can make others sacrifice for the common good. And this discussion involves us all.

Sure, but it’s also very damning to discussion. What if you are 45. As a woman, you’ve already had all the kids that you are likely to have. If you already used painkillers in the 2000s, you are now forever “unqualified” to speak despite your regrets.

And on the other end, people who haven’t given birth yet are disqualified for speaking about thing they might actually do. How can one make up their mind, and drum up community support without talking about the issue?

My wife did. She stuck it out through a pretty painful episiotomy as well.

Pain by itself is not a problem. Fever might be. Especially during pregnancy.

Pain, especially chronic pain, can lead to stress which has a litany of effects on your body.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5546756/

True. But

Painkillers are only for treating acute pain.

Chronic pain is fixed by treating underlaying cause (unless you don't have access to health services).

Totally wrong.

  --a random MD

That assumes the underlaying cause is known… and fixable.

This is a great argument for why women should not work for a year or more after pregnancy.

This is something everybody should read who only knows the pain killer obsessed US healthcare system:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/27/opinion/sunday/surgery-ge...

There is nimesulide, which seems to be all nice, but comes with 1 in a 100000 chance to destroy your liver with 1-2 doses if you are born without some (yet unknown) enzymes.

CBD?

Subjecting a fetus to any compound from marijuana seems extremely irresponsible.

Do you have evidence for this, or is this just a knee-jerk "ooh, scary illegal drug!" reaction?

We have lots of evidence for the effect of marijuana on fetuses and babies.

And?

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