The Dangers of Placenta Pills - CDC

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Health officials issued a warning about possible dangers of taking encapsulated pills made from their placenta, after an Oregon infant's infection was tied to the practice. The baby was born healthy and without complication in September, but then its health began to deteriorate rapidly.

The practice of ingesting the placenta after giving birth is believed by some to help with postpartum depression, breast milk production and increase energy levels. It's trendy now since a lot of celebrity moms and bloggers are doing and promoting it.

In a CDC report published last Thursday, a group of doctors and health officials say the capsules appear to have caused an infant's illness in Portland, Oregon, last fall. The authors said moms should avoid taking them, noting that the making of placenta capsules is not regulated and there's no guarantee they are free of harmful germs.

Last fall, the Oregon baby fell ill twice with a strep infection. Doctors of the infant transferred the baby to the neonatal intensive care unit and began a series of tests. Those tests revealed a deadly blood infection known as late-onset group B Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS) bacteremia, which doctors treated with an 11-day course of antibiotics. Investigators believe the mom passed an infection to her child during birth. Later, the mom started taking placenta capsules. The child got sick again weeks later, and health officials think the pills played a role. Tests found the bacteria in the placenta pills.

The mother had sent her placenta to a company that offers to clean, slice and dehydrate it, then grind it and put it into gelatin capsules, according to the report. It's possible the company which was not identified failed to heat the placenta enough to kill germs, the authors said.

The placenta grows in the uterus during pregnancy and provides oxygen and nutrients to the fetus. Most mammal mothers eat placentas after giving birth — camels and humans traditionally were the exceptions. Ground placenta was a treatment in ancient Chinese medicine, though it wasn't standard practice for new mothers.

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

Antidepressants During Pregnancy Increase the Risk of Autism

According to a new study, women who take a certain class of widely used antidepressants during their 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy may face almost twice the risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder.

The new research was published last Monday December 14, 2015 in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Pediatrics. They studied 145,456 kids in Quebec that were born between 1998 and 2009, to determine if children of mothers who took antidepressants while pregnant were at an increased risk of developing an autism disorder. This is among the strongest findings linking antidepressant use in pregnancy to poor outcomes in the children born of those pregnancies.

Researchers found that the children of mothers who took antidepressants later in pregnancy were at an 87% higher risk to develop autism than those without exposure. Of the 2,532 children who fell into this category, 31 were diagnosed with autism (1.2%). Second and third trimester are a crucial time for brain development in the fetus.

The risk was even higher for children of mothers who are taking the most common form of antidepressants, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). They had a 117% greater chance of developing an autism disorder. Outh of the 1,583 children in this category, 22 were diagnosed with autism (about 1.4%).


"Our study has established that taking antidepressants during the second or third trimester of pregnancy almost doubles the risk that the child will be diagnosed with autism by age seven, especially if the mother takes selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, often known by its acronym SSRIs," according to the lead researcher Anick Berard, an expert on pharmaceutical safety during pregnancy at the University of Montreal.

SSRIs are the most commonly prescribed anti-depressants, and include brand names such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft.

As many as one in 45 children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in the United States, according to a recent study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scientists still do not fully understand what causes autism, though both genetics and environment are believed to play a role.

Researchers said their findings are significant because as many as 10% of pregnant women are currently being treated with antidepressants. However, experts also stressed that no pregnant woman currently on antidepressants should stop treatment without talking to her physician first. They also said that pregnant women who are untreated for depression faced other risk factors in their pregnancy.

Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, said pregnant women on SSRIs should not stop taking their medication without more study and information.

"The absolute risk is still low and the odds are overwhelmingly in their favor that it’s low," Wiznitzer said of the chance of a child developing autism after his or her mother took an SSRI.