Morning sickness medication cleared

For the first time, a large study shows that pregnant women who suffer morning sickness are not risking harm to their babies if they take a certain anti-nausea drug.

The result may lead more doctors to prescribe the drug metoclopramide and women to feel less guilty about using it during their baby’s crucial first few months of development, experts said.

Currently, no drugs are approved in the U.S. for morning sickness, which plagues most women in the first three months of pregnancy. Doctors sometimes use medicines approved for other types of nausea that are thought to be safe in pregnancy.

The study looked back at nearly 82,000 births in Israel, where metoclopramide is commonly used. It found no difference in birth defects or other problems in newborns of women whether or not they took the drug, sold as Reglan and in generic form.

Results of the study, which did not look at the drug’s effectiveness, were reported in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.