Pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility while using budesonide inhalers

Budesonide inhalers can be used safely during pregnancy.

Because the medicine is inhaled into your lungs, very little of it gets into your bloodstream and almost none gets to your baby. Even if a small amount does get to your baby, it will not cause harm.

It's important to keep using your budesonide inhaler in pregnancy to ensure your asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is well controlled. Having breathing difficulties may be dangerous for you and your baby.

You may find that you need extra budesonide during pregnancy. This is fine, and it's safe to increase the dose if you need to.

Contact your doctor or specialist if you're having problems controlling your asthma or COPD.

It's OK to use a budesonide inhaler while you're breastfeeding.

There's not much information about using budesonide inhalers while breastfeeding, but only tiny amounts get into breast milk. Your baby will not be able to absorb a lot of budesonide into their body from the breast milk, so it's unlikely to cause any side effects in your baby.

If you notice that your baby is not feeding as well as usual, or if you have any other concerns about your baby, talk to your health visitor, midwife or doctor as soon as possible.

There's no evidence to suggest that taking budesonide reduces fertility in either men or women.