There are some women who love to buy over the counter medicines to treat themselves of their various ailments and complaints. They love going to the pharmacy, go over the OTCs and pick out the most attractive medication they can lay their hands on. Some don’t even know what they are for, but would buy it anyway, "just in case."

One of the most dangerous activities done by pregnant women is to self medicate. So here is another pregnancy tip that should never be broken: consult the doctor, don’t self medicate.

One of the dangers of self-medicating is not understanding pharmacology and pharmacodynamics. In lay man’s terms, not understanding how drugs can affect the body. Pregnant women are especially in danger of medications because some could actually be harmful to the development of the fetus. Some are just plain downright dangerous and cause foetal death.

One of the most dangerous drugs that could harm the life of a first trimester fetus is metronidazole, Flagyl as it is marketed. This is usually prescribed to women with yeast infections. These women who get prescribed this medicine are never ever pregnant. Metronidazole is a toxic medicine for pregnant women and can cause foetal death.

Some women unfortunately never listen to logic and when they experience the itch caused by yeast infections, they just go and buy the first thing on the counter. Metronidazoles in some countries are OTCs and a lot of miscarriages have been reported by their Health Departments because women just bought and took the medicine without consulting their doctors.

Another medicine that is truly harmful for pregnant women are laxatives. Sometimes constipation happens when a woman is pregnant and sometimes the constipation could not be helped even when eating prunes or drinking prune juice. So, self-medicating women just goes out and buys the next laxative they can get their hands on. Unfortunately, a lot of these are not safe for pregnant women. There are some women who have been reported to have lost a lot of fluids as the result of unmonitored laxative use. With the dehydration causing stress on the fetus of the first trimester, there could be spontaneous abortion.