The use of prescription medications and non-prescription medications during lactation in a prospective Canadian cohort study

Table 2 10 most common prescription medications used by mothers while breastfeeding during the first 3 months postpartum (n = 2540) compared to non-breastfeeding mothers (n = 366) with most common reasons for medication use in the CHILD cohort study

	Breastfeeding mothers			Non-breastfeeding mothers
Prescription medication	Reported reason for use*	Mothers who used medication for specified reason.		Reported reason for use*	Mothers who used medication for specified reason.
		%	n		%	n
domperidone	Lactation disorder	97.25	212	Lactation disorder	100	44
domperidone	Gastroesophageal reflux	1.38	3	Lactation disorder	100	44
norethisterone	Contraception	99.22	127	Contraception	100	4
levothyroxine	Hypothyroidism	97.22	105	Hypothyroidism	88.89	16
cephalexin	Mastitis	41.57	37	Mastitis	18.8	2
	Infection	16.85	13
	Breast infection	8.99	8
amoxicillin	Infection	16.92	11	No data
	Urinary tract infection	10.77	7
	Bladder Infection	10.77	7
	Mastitis	9.23	6
salbutamol	Asthma	79.25	42	Asthma	70	7
salbutamol	Chest infection	3.77	2	Bronchitis	20	2
betamethasone;clotrimazole;miconazole;mupirocin	Reason not given	95.92	47	Reason not given	100
antibacterial drug name unknown	Reason not given	100	41	Reason not given	100
cloxacillin	Mastitis	52.94	16	No data
	Infection	23.53	8
	Infection at incision site	5.88	2
nystatin	Candidiasis prevention	42.42	14	No data
	Candidiasis infection	18.18	6
	Fungal infection	15.15	5
	Nipple abnormality	9.09	3

* Reason for medication use was ontologized (assigned an ontology/controlled vocabulary with hierarchy)
**The combination of medications used and indication that was only used once was removed from the table
***Indications related to lactation were bolded

ISSN: 1746-4358