The Motherisk Alcohol and Substance Use Helpline: 10 years of experience and counting.

The Motherisk Alcohol and Substance Use Helpline at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, is a unique telephone service providing evidence-based information on the negative effects associated with alcohol and substance use in pregnancy and lactation. We describe the characteristics of the service, the demographics of the callers, and the inquiries made during its first ten years of service. Since its inception in November 1998 until November 2008, almost 20,000 calls had been received with 60% of calls initiated by pregnant and breastfeeding women, the remainder from various health care providers.

Existence and severity of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP) with different partners.

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP) is a widespread condition which may impact on the quality of life. Our objective was to understand the role of the placenta, which is mostly made up of fetal cells, in NVP. We examined the relationship between NVP and different partners in the same women.

Validation studies of the Pregnancy Unique-Quantification of Emesis (PUQE) scores.

The Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis (PUQE) is a scoring system to quantify the severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP). Based on quantification of the 3 physical symptoms of NVP (nausea, vomiting and retching), PUQE closely correlates with the validated but much more complex Rhodes' score. We examined the ability of PUQE to predict four independent aspects of NVP: (a) pregnant women's ability to take multivitamins.

Is lack of morning sickness teratogenic? A prospective controlled study.

Background: Case-control studies have suggested that the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) may have a protective effect against specific malformations. These suggestions have been interpreted as if the lack of NVP may put mothers at an increased teratogenic risk.

Methods: A prospective, cohort-controlled study was done comparing pregnancy outcome in women not experiencing NVP with those experiencing NVP at two levels of clinical severity.

The safety of ondansetron for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy: a prospective comparative study.

Objective: Ondansetron (Zofran) is a drug used for the treatment of nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy. Despite the fact that it is not indicated, women are being prescribed this drug for the treatment of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP). There is a paucity of information on fetal safety for this indication.