Welcome to the BUMPS blog!
This is a space we have designed to raise awareness about the lack of safety data following medication use in pregnancy.
As part of a public private partnership project called ConcePTION, we are running a promotional campaign, supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative. Over the next few months we will be discussing a number of issues encountered by women who take medicines in pregnancy, doctors who prescribe medicines in pregnancy, and scientists and researchers who have the job of understanding the data collected from pregnant women.
COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy - 22nd October 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the difficulties that pregnant women face regarding the decision to use medicines, including vaccines.
With recent NHS England figures showing that one in every six of the most critically ill COVID-19 patients is an unvaccinated pregnant woman, the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations during pregnancy is extremely concerning. READ MORE….
Pregnancy Pharmacovigilance: gathering evidence for medicine safety in pregnancy - 30th June 2021
In addition to providing information and advice for women and healthcare professionals, the UK Teratology Information Service (UKTIS) plays a role in pregnancy pharmacovigilance in the UK. This blog post will introduce the concept of pharmacovigilance and tell you how you can play a role in this important process. READ MORE....
Covid-19 vaccine study for pregnant women launches in the UK - 1st June 2021
We are excited to tell you that our head of service at UKTIS, Dr Ken Hodson, is the principal investigator for a new study. This will investigate the safety and tolerability of the Pfizer mRNA Covid vaccine in pregnant women at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle upon Tyne. The RVI is one of 11 National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) sites across the UK which are aiming to recruit a total of around 235 volunteers. READ MORE....
UKTIS participates in collaborative research projects: IMI ConcePTION - 26th May 2021
The UK Teratology Information Service (UKTIS) collects pregnancy outcome data from healthcare professionals by attempting to follow up enquiries made to our telephone advisory service. In addition, UKTIS also has an online registry for women to report details of their own pregnancies, on the BUMPs (best use of medicines in pregnancy) website (www.medicinesinpregnancy.org). Information collected from both healthcare providers and women provides the basis for future patient risk assessments and contributes to surveillance of the safety of medications and chemicals in pregnancy. READ MORE....
Multiple Sclerosis Conversation - 17th March 2021
Hello and welcome to this BUMPS conversation, in collaboration with the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) ConcePTION project.
As March is Multiple Sclerosis awareness month and we are gearing up for MS awareness week 2021 (19-25th April), we are bringing you a conversation exploring the knowledge gap that exists for medication in pregnancy and breastfeeding between me, Alison Oliver, a scientist at the UK Teratology Information Service (www.uktis.org), and Katrin who received a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) a number of years ago. Katrin speaks about some of the decisions she had to make regarding her medicines when planning her pregnancy. READ MORE….
Introduction to BUMPS - 15th March 2021
As this is our first post, we would like to tell you a bit more about BUMPS.
Who are we and what do we do?
BUMPS is a website for women and their partners that provides evidence-based information about the safety of medicines in pregnancy. It also houses a secure database for women to record details of their own pregnancies. READ MORE….