OBJECTIVES:The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pharmacy professionals toward the risk of medication use during pregnancy in Gondar town.

METHODS: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey was carried out over practicing community and hospital pharmacists in Gondar town. Both descriptive and analytic statistics was utilized. For descriptive analysis, results were expressed as numbers, percentages and mean (± SD and 95% CI).

RESULTS: Out of 152 pharmacists invited to participate, 135 of them completed the survey giving a response rate of 88.8%.The mean age of respondents was 28.64 years with a standard deviation of ± 5.0. Moreover, the majority of pharmacists 78 (57.8%) had >5years and 57 (42.2%) had <5years of work experience. About 74 (54.8%) of the respondent knew the harmful effect of medication use during pregnancy and two-third of the participants (60%) knew the cause of NSAIDs when it used in the third trimester. More than half of the participants 75 (55.6%) agreed that most of the presently available drugs are unsafe during pregnancy and among the respondent, about 65(48%) of the respondent was believed that drugs increase the risk of birth defects to a very large extent. The majority of the respondent (72%) also reported they tell a common side effect to pregnant women.

CONCLUSIONS: Most respondents exhibited a healthy attitude and practice but very low knowledge about drug safety during pregnancy. Even if the pharmacists exhibit a healthy attitude towards medication use during pregnancy, there are still gaps in knowledge where educational interventions are needed.