What is flurazepam?
Flurazepam is a medication that has been used to treat insomnia (having a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep). Flurazepam is in a class of medications called benzodiazepines. MotherToBaby has a general fact sheet on benzodiazepines at: https://mothertobaby.org/fact-sheets/benzodiazepines-pregnancy/. Flurazepam has been sold under the brand name Dalmane®.
I take flurazepam. Can it make it harder for me to get pregnant?
Studies have not looked at whether taking flurazepam could make it harder to get pregnant.
Should I stop taking flurazepam once I find out that I am pregnant?
Talk with your healthcare providers before making changes to how you take this medication. If you take this medication regularly and then suddenly stop taking it, you could have withdrawal symptoms. We don’t know what effects withdrawal might have on a pregnancy. Your healthcare providers can help with slowly stopping this medication if you plan to stop taking flurazepam during a pregnancy.
Does taking flurazepam increase the chance for miscarriage?
Miscarriage can occur in any pregnancy. Studies have not been done to see if flurazepam could increase the chance for a miscarriage.
Does taking flurazepam increase the chance of having a baby with a birth defect?
Every pregnancy starts out with a 3-5% chance of having a birth defect. This is called the background risk. Flurazepam has not been studied among women for use in the first trimester. Experimental animal studies did not find a higher chance for birth defects with exposure to flurazepam.
Could flurazepam cause other pregnancy complications?
Based on the data available, it is not known if flurazepam can cause other pregnancy complications.
I need to take flurazepam throughout my entire pregnancy. Will it cause withdrawal symptoms in my baby after birth?
If a pregnant person is taking a benzodiazepine near the time of delivery, then their newborn might have withdrawal symptoms, which are treatable. If flurazepam is used at the end of pregnancy, the baby can be monitored for “floppy infant syndrome” (poor muscle tone) and difficulty feeding. Not every baby exposed to a benzodiazepine will have withdrawal symptoms.
Will taking flurazepam during pregnancy affect my baby’s behavior or cause learning problems?
Based on the data available, it is not known if flurazepam can cause behavior or learning issues.
Can I breastfeed while taking flurazepam?
There are no studies checking to see how much flurazepam enters breastmilk. There is only one case report on a person breastfeeding who was taking flurazepam. This breastfeeding person was also taking three other medications. They reported that the nursing infant was very sleepy. Flurazepam could cause drowsiness, but it is not known if it was the flurazepam that caused the baby to be too sleepy. However, since flurazepam can stay in the body for a long time, talk with your healthcare provider to see if another, better studied medication would work for you while you are breastfeeding. Talk with your healthcare providers about all your breastfeeding questions.
I take flurazepam. Can it make it harder for me to get my partner pregnant or increase the chance of birth defects?
Studies have not looked at the chance of fertility effects or birth defects if a father or sperm donor takes flurazepam. In general, exposures that fathers have are unlikely to increase risks to a pregnancy. For more information, please see the MotherToBaby fact sheet Paternal Exposures at https://mothertobaby.org/fact-sheets/paternal-exposures-pregnancy/.
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