Association Between Prenatal Antibiotic Exposure and Infant Wheeze Outcomes.

Summary: Many pregnant women worry that taking antibiotics might hurt their baby’s future health. To learn more, doctors studied over 4,700 babies from 12 different groups across the country. They looked to see if babies whose mothers took antibiotics during pregnancy had more lung problems, like wheezing or coughing, in their first 18 months of life.

The study found that these babies were not more likely to wheeze or need emergency hospital care than babies whose moms didn't take antibiotics. However, the babies exposed to antibiotics were slightly more likely to need medicine (like inhalers) to help with coughing. In short, while prenatal antibiotics might lead to needing some mild treatment later, they do not appear to cause severe lung emergencies.