Montreal – New research indicates that, even if a women is pregnant, it’s better to use her asthma inhalers than not. In fact, avoiding the use of an inhaler can actually do more harm to her unborn child.

If asthma is severe and uncontrolled, babies will have their own risk of asthma increased by almost one-third, according to Montreal researchers. So while most physicians will advise pregnant women to avoid taking drugs if at all possible, the same advice does not hold true for asthma medications. If mom ignores her own breathing difficulty, this research show she may be contributing to a greater chance that her child will have asthma too.

Lead author, Lucie Blais, noted that many moms stop their asthma treatments during pregnacy, and convince themselves that a little breathlessness is okay. However, Blais – a professor at the Universite de Montreal’s faculty of pharmacy – says that the mother is who does this may be harming her child. At issue is not just oxygen deprivation, but even processes that start in the woman’s body before she feels breathless.

Blais and her team reviewed the health records of 8,226 children born to asthmatic mothers for over a decade. Parents were asked about their own medical history, including their lifestyle and environment. Blais said that the results of the study were clear: failure to treat severe asthma definitely has an impact on the child.

While it was clear that asthma in pregnancy must be adequately treated, some surprising environmental elements appeared to confer some protection on the fetus, including the pets in the home, a wood-burning fireplace or the child’s attendance at daycare. Given that asthma is often linked to allergies, it makes sense that anything which helps to avoid allergies will also lessen the risk of asthma.

This kind of protective effect supports the long-time theory that modern life is too “clean”. The hygiene theory of allergies says that exposing ourselves to the common “dirt” (including animals, germs and viruses) helps to ensure that the child’s immune system develops properly, thus lowering asthma risk.

Source: Canada.com; reporting from BeAllergyWise