First do no harm: valproate and medicines safety in pregnancy

The authors examine the safety of valproate and medicines to women's health and pregnancy. The authors concentrate on valproate, a medicine prescribed by general practitioners (GPs), with relevance for other commonly prescribed teratogenic medicines. Primodos is no longer used but there will be women cared for in GI, including those affected by pelvic mesh use, for whom this report is also highly relevant. They documented the protracted history of harms of valproate with similarities to thalidomide, which affected 10 000 surviving children worldwide. Furthermore, the authors also stated the themes common to both tragedies including early signals of concern, multiple and systematic organisational failures.