Pregnant women are too often being prescribed drugs that may cause damage to the foetus, say researchers from France. Dr I. Lacroix and colleagues (laboratory of medical and clinical pharmacology, Toulouse) conducted a retrospective survey of the records of 1,000 women from the French health insurance system. They found that 99 per cent of these women had received a prescription for at least one drug during their pregnancy, with an average number of 13.6 medicines per woman. In 1.6 per cent of women, one or more prescription had been for drugs whose risk was considered by the United States Food and Drug Administration to outweigh any benefit. In addition, 59 per cent were given drugs considered to represent a foetal risk but with a benefit that might be acceptable and 79 per cent received drugs for which no information on safety was available from human or animal studies. The most commonly prescribed drugs were iron, gastrointestinal drugs, dermatological products and analgesics. "Drug use in French pregnant women should be continuously monitored and physicians and women should be more aware of the potential risks to the foetus, "the authors say (Lancet 2000;356:1735). In an accompanying commentary on the study, Dr Françoise Haramburu (department of pharmacology, Victor Segalen university, Bordeaux) and colleagues say that the level of drug usage may have been an underestimate, as the study did not take account of self-medication or hospital prescriptions. However, less than 1 per cent of all drugs are known teratogens and not all drugs are useless or dangerous during pregnancy, they say. Both prescribers and women need more information on the rational use of drugs during pregnancy, they conclude (ibid, p1704).