Balancing risks: making decisions for maternal treatment without data on fetal safety.

ABSTRACT: Challenges arise when treatment to improve maternal health brings the possibility of risk to fetal health. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is the most recent, but hardly the only, example. Because pregnant patients are often specifically excluded from trials of new therapies, this is often the dilemma that patients and providers face when considering new treatments. In this study, we used the COVID-19 vaccine as an exemplar to question the broader issue of how society, in general, and obstetricians, in particular, should balance obligations to pregnant women's right of access to new therapeutic agents with the physician's desire to protect the fetus from potential risks. We will argue that in almost all circumstances (with few exceptions, as will also be discussed), materna

SUBMITTER: Minkoff H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8054615 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature