Acetaminophen use during pregnancy poses no risk of adverse cognitive effects in babies

Children born to mothers who used acetaminophen during pregnancy do not appear to have poor cognitive development at 4 years of age, as shown in a study.

For the study, data collected throughout pregnancy and delivery from women in the Ontario Birth Study prospective cohort (2013–2019) were used. A total of 436 women were included, and their children underwent NIH Toolbox Early Childhood Cognition battery at 4 years of age.

Researchers used Poisson regression with a robust error variance to examine the association between maternal acetaminophen use and the primary outcome of a cognition composite score of the children.

Overall acetaminophen use was common (69 percent), with 38 percent, 36 percent, and 43 percent of the women reporting use before pregnancy, in early pregnancy, and in late pregnancy, respectively. Children born to mothers who reported acetaminophen use during pregnancy had similar performance on the cognitive tests as those born to mothers who did not use acetaminophen during pregnancy.

Analysis showed no significant association between maternal acetaminophen exposure any time before or during pregnancy and low cognition composite score of the children. The incidence rate ratios of suboptimal overall cognition were 1.38 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.78–2.45) with maternal use of acetaminophen before pregnancy, 1.22 (95 percent CI, 0.67–2.22) with maternal use of acetaminophen in early pregnancy, 0.80 (95 percent CI, 0.44–1.47) with maternal use of acetaminophen in late pregnancy, and 1.56 (95 percent CI, 0.74–3.29) with maternal use of acetaminophen during pregnancy overall.