Carmustine

Pregnancy

Carmustine injection can harm the unborn baby when it is given to a pregnant woman. This is based on how the medicine works and on what was seen in animals. Only limited data are available from pregnant women, and they are not enough to say what the risk of major birth defects and miscarriage might be. In rats and rabbits, carmustine was embryotoxic. In rats it was also teratogenic, causing thoracoabdominal closure, neural tube and eye defects, and malformations of the skeletal system of the fetus. These effects appeared at doses lower than the maximum cumulative human dose based on body surface area. So when a doctor prescribes Carmustine injection to a pregnant woman, the benefits for the mother should be weighed against the possible risks to the fetus. Bad outcomes in pregnancy happen whatever the mother's health and whether or not she uses medicines. The background risk of major birth defects and miscarriage for the population this medicine is used in is unknown. In the U.S. general population, the estimated background risk in clinically recognized pregnancies is 2 to 4% for major birth defects and 15 to 20% for miscarriage.

Lactation

Nobody knows whether carmustine passes into human milk, what it does to a breastfed infant, or what it does to milk production. Many drugs do pass into human milk, and carmustine can cause serious adverse events (for example carcinogenicity and myelosuppression) in nursing infants. For this reason, breastfeeding should be stopped while taking Carmustine.