Essi Whaites Heinonen

My research primarily focuses on understanding the effects of chronic drug treatment used during pregnancy and breastfeeding on the mother, the infant and the breastfeeding itself. 

I am a neonatologist at Karolinska University Hospital and my research background is in perinatal pharmacoepidemiology. My doctoral thesis focused on the effects of psychotropic drug treatment during pregnancy and breastfeeding on the mother and infant, and during my Postdoc stay at University of California San Diego I studied the effects of chronic drug treatment during breastfeeding on breastfeeding rates, milk composition and potential long-term effects on the breastfed infants.

Currently, I am performing different projects on infant effects after maternal drug treatement during pregnancy (at Center for Pharmacoepidemiology at the Institution of Medicine), and during breastfeeding (at the division of Pediatrics at CLINTEC).

In addition to this, I am a part of the group of authors for Janusmed Fosterpåverkan, the Swedish information base for drug treatment during pregnancy.