More than 14 percent of pregnant women were prescribed opioids (narcotics) for pain at some time during their pregnancy, according to a study posted to the online version of Anesthesiology. Given the surprising rate these medications were prescribed to pregnant women, more research is needed to assess the risk of opioids to unborn babies, the study suggests.Prescriptions for opioids increased almost threefold in the general population, to more than 200 million between 1991 and 2009, according to the National Institutes of Health.
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