Can I Take Trandate When Pregnant?
Whether your healthcare provider recommends taking
Trandate® (
labetalol hydrochloride) while you are pregnant will depend on your particular situation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers this a pregnancy Category C medicine, which means that it might not be safe for use during pregnancy, although the full risks are currently unknown.
Trandate and Pregnancy Category C
The FDA uses a category system to classify the possible risks to a fetus when a specific medicine is taken during pregnancy.
Pregnancy Category C refers to medicines that have not been adequately studied in pregnant humans but that show side effects to the fetus during animal studies. These side effects can either be temporary (such as a slowed heart rate at birth) or, in some cases, permanent (birth defects).
Medicines that have not been studied in any pregnant women or animals automatically are given a pregnancy Category C rating.
A healthcare provider may still prescribe a pregnancy Category C medicine for a pregnant woman if he or she believes that the benefits to the woman outweigh the possible risks to the unborn child. For example, untreated
high blood pressure during pregnancy carries its own set of significant risks to both the mother and the fetus
(see Preeclampsia). In situations like this, a healthcare provider may prescribe a pregnancy Category C medicine if the benefit of treating
high blood pressure in pregnancy outweighs the risk of the medicine.
