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Two drugs commonly diagnosed to treat urinary tract infections in pregnant women have been found to increase the chance of multiple birth defects in their developing fetuses.

In a study recently completed by the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sulfonamides (sulfa drugs) and nitrofurantoins are shown to increase the risk of several serious birth defects.

Anencephaly, a fatal condition in which the brain and skull are malformed, was determined to be three times more likely in the child of a woman taking sulfa drugs during gestation); other defects, including hypoplastic left heart syndrome, coarctation of the aorta, diaphragmatic hernia (causing breathing distress), and traverse limb deficiency (shortened limbs) were also identified.

Women who take nitrofurantoins during pregnancy increase the risk of serious birth defects affecting the eyes and heart, as well as cleft palate. The CDC study shows the likelihood of these conditions to be doubled or tripled by gestational use of nitrofurantoins.

Because studies of drug effects in pregnant women are limited by ethical and medical concerns, this CDC study which links two antibiotics to birth defects is an eye-opening, unprecedented warning to the medical community.

While the CDC is quick to point out that, even with a two or three-fold increase, the risk of any of the birth defects pinpointed in the study is minimal, responsible physicians and expecting parents now have the ability to eliminate the use of these two potentially dangerous drugs.