Keep the legacy of Motherisk going at the Hospital for Sick Children

We are clinicians who rely on the Motherisk programme, its counselors and updated data, to provide care for pregnant women and new mothers.

Motherisk has been the one and only resource for Ontarian women and clinicians about medication and chemical exposure in pregnancy or with breastfeeding.

The Motherisk call centre and its website information have guided us all in determining the degree of safety of certain medications in pregnancy or with lactation. That information has always been current, updated and clear.

To lose the Motherisk programme would be a tragic loss for us all. Just recently, the New England Journal of Medicine published a Perspective on this crucial topic (Pharmacologic Research in Pregnant Women — Time to Get It Right, NEJM April 4, 2019; 380:1293). In that Perspective, we learned that “Many pregnant women (70 to 80%) take at least one prescription medication during the first trimester of pregnancy, and about 90% take at least one medication at any point during pregnancy.” There is no alternative to Motherisk, nor is there a Canadian scientific body collecting updated information about medication and chemical exposure in pregnancy or with lactation.

We humbly ask the Hospital for Sick Children, and any other potential provincial sponsor, to maintain this outstanding programme (or a re-branded version), that so compassionately counsels clinicians, Mothers and new families.