441 — Dr. Adam Urato on Obstetric Drugs That Harm Mothers and Babies

In this powerful episode of BS Free MD, Dr. Adam Urato, a Harvard-trained maternal-fetal medicine specialist and practicing obstetrician in Framingham, Massachusetts, exposes the deep systemic failures in modern obstetrics and pharmaceutical influence. He recounts his journey from being drawn to the miracle of birth to becoming a vocal critic of dangerous, ineffective, and profit-driven medical practices. Central to his critique is the 20-year use of the drug Makena, a synthetic hormone falsely marketed as a preterm birth preventative that was ultimately pulled from the market in 2023 after studies proved it ineffective and potentially harmful. Dr. Urato reveals how corporate rollouts—downplaying risks, exaggerating benefits, and fear-mongering—have shaped medical standards, often at the expense of patient safety. He extends this critique to SSRIs in pregnancy, detailing their well-documented fetal effects including increased miscarriage, birth defects, neonatal withdrawal, and long-term neurodevelopmental risks, while challenging the narrative that these drugs are safe and effective. He also raises alarms about the growing trend of vaccinating pregnant women with multiple vaccines (COVID, RSV, flu, Tdap), emphasizing the lack of long-term safety data and the unprecedented nature of this practice. Dr. Urato stresses the importance of humility in medicine, the precautionary principle, and the need for patients to question the status quo, especially when profit motives override evidence-based care. The episode concludes with a sobering call to recognize that the medical system is often not a protective layer for patients but a corporate-driven machine that prioritizes intervention over caution.