Antibiotics in early pregnancy

[ZinniaGarden]

I am 7 weeks 2 days and have a horrible chest cold/flu.  Fever and chills, cough from deep chest, sore throat, ear aches and so on.  The dr gave me a script for a z-pack a few days ago and I have put off taking it hoping to get better on my own.  But my husband put off going to the dr and his turned into walking pneumonia.  So, I started the meds tonight.  I have found that it is in catagorie B so that makes me feel a bit better but I really worry about taking stuff this early.  Anyone ever been in the same boat?

[AZ mom&teacher]

When that happened to me I called my midwife to check the antibiotics with her and she said there were safer things to take (don't remember what I was prescribed) and she was able to call in a new script for me.

[la mamita]

ddcc,

did you get tested to show that you have a bacterial infection like strep or something? in your OP you say cold/flu, neither of which require abx. just making sure you aren't being prescribed abx without reason.

i took abx twice now in the first trimester--once i had strep and the second time i had an UTI. i also checked with my current OB and on safefetus.com to ensure they were safe enough for pregnancy (cat A or B). i was misprescribed something by the pharmacist here which was not safe for pregnancy so i am glad i checked. i'm not worrying about the effects on the baby because the risks of not taking abx were higher in my opinion (untreated UTIs can lead to kidney disease, untreated strep not sure what that would turn into but strep feels so awful it can't be good)...

[Charlize]

I had to take a z-pack Thanksgiving weekend for a really bad sinus infection. (The only antibiotic I can really take is the z-pack as I'm allergic to penicillin and sulfa drugs.) I had to have some relief. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but in order to get some relief so I could take better care of myself I felt it was the best option.

FWIW, I've taken antibiotics with all of our children during the first trimester as well as throughout the pregnancy at various times and everything has been just fine.