SLEEP SUPPLEMENTS!

I thought to post this here, because when I was researching different supplements for sleep that were safe for pregnancy I ran into a lot of conflicting information including on this site. Here is what my doctor sent to me regarding a sleep supplement that I was considering that included melatonin, GABA, and L-Theanine:

“You are correct that determining safety of medications and supplements in pregnancy can be a maddening process. We are limited by a several factors:

It is unethical to offer randomized control studies on pregnant women to garner the most powerful data

We rely on retrospective data which can have multiple confounding factors and internal bias.

Herbal supplements bypass FDA regulations for proof of safety

Studies on effects on animals do not always extrapolate to humans.

That said, I would recommend that you not take the supplement you mentioned as there is limited data about L-Theanine, GABA showed harm in animal studies and even M

elatonin does not have robust safety data. Unisom and Benadryl have more data showing safety in pregnancy. We should also explore underlying causes for your sleep dysfunction. If you use daily caffeine, I recommend that you start to wean to half-caff or even to decaf to see if that helps.” - Dr. J McKeand - Women’s Health Consultants