When the burning nerve pain in her back and legs gets very bad, Lucy Martinez, who is 27 weeks pregnant, reaches for Tylenol. It helps.
Ms. Martinez, 28, of Pocatello, Idaho, shattered one of her vertebrae in a snowboarding accident in January. A few months later, she found out that she was pregnant. She stopped taking heavy painkillers and has been managing her pregnancy and her recovery, simultaneously, ever since.
On bad days, Ms. Martinez said, the pain is “unbearable.” So she was confused and upset on Monday when President Trump encouraged pregnant women to “tough it out” without Tylenol. He claimed that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, could be a cause of autism, even though doctors say it is safe in moderation.
Ms. Martinez immediately contacted her doctor, asking whether she should continue taking pain medication. After hearing that it was OK, she still called her mother in tears, overwhelmed by the fear of being blamed for whatever might go wrong.
Even when everything goes smoothly, pregnancy is uncomfortable and sometimes painful. Spines shift. Calves cramp. Heads ache. Expectant mothers must weigh their own comfort against the needs of a growing fetus, staying vigilant about what they eat and drink. And they must take in advice from their doctors, their doulas and their partners.
And now, from their president.
“Don’t take it,” Mr. Trump said of Tylenol at a White House briefing. “Fight like hell not to take it.” He pointed to exceptions in rare instances, like dangerously high fevers.
In interviews with pregnant women and doctors, they described how Mr. Trump’s announcement added a new wrinkle of worry. As it is, pregnant women do not need to look very far for advice and admonishment; it comes from all directions, even from strangers on the street.
That is why Meaghan English, 38, of Boston, was glad to be in her obstetrician’s office when Mr. Trump’s news conference came on television.
“It was surreal,” said Ms. English, who is 34 weeks pregnant and has a healthy 2-year-old.
She takes Tylenol for migraines, just as she did during her first pregnancy. A couple of weeks ago, Ms. English, who works in international development, heard about a scientific review by researchers at Harvard that found evidence for a connection, but not causation, between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders.
She asked a nurse at her obstetrician’s office to confirm, one more time, that Tylenol was safe to take. The nurse said yes.
Multiple health authorities have examined whether acetaminophen, the most widely used drug in pregnancy, poses risks to the developing fetus, among them the Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
The research is inconclusive, meaning that there is no established risk. But the painkiller is used to treat fever, which can be hazardous to the fetus.
For many pregnant women, Mr. Trump’s comments were in line with what they were already doing. Avoiding medication, when possible, is a common practice.
Audrey Widodo, 26, who lives in Mountain View, Calif., is 33 weeks pregnant. It is her first pregnancy, and she has been overwhelmed by the abundance of information and advice on social media platforms. Her instinct, she said, was to “stick it out” and try not to take medication while pregnant, although she did consult with her doctor and take a prescription for bad nausea.
She is trying to use natural remedies for her other ailments. Instead of taking Tylenol for her back pain, she gets massages or uses balm. “Going through pregnancy is just a lot,” she said. “Because it’s my first time experiencing it, I’m more afraid.”
Lindsey Corey, of Lake Worth, Fla., is a mother to Owen, 6, and Molly, 4. She took Tylenol during her second pregnancy, but not her first, she said, adding that Owen has autism and Molly does not.
Ms. Corey, 41, worried that the president’s comments could be dangerous, since acetaminophen can ease fever. “The guilt that you can impart on a mother, the guilt that she may feel that she caused autism to her child, it is so incredibly sad,” she said.
Dr. Laura Andreson, an obstetrician in Franklin, Tenn., said that when she heard rumblings about Mr. Trump’s announcement, her practice began to coach nurses on how to talk to pregnant women about Tylenol.
She is afraid that expectant mothers would abandon the drug, she said, even though the risks of not taking it often outweigh the risks of taking it. “High fever in pregnancy can result in birth defects,” she said. “It could result in miscarriage. It could result in stillbirth.”
Dr. Andreson sees thousands of patients, she said, many of whom she expects to be anxious because of Mr. Trump’s comments. “It’s hard to wrap my head around what kind of thought process was behind making these statements,” she said.
Julia Love, 34, of Stoughton, Wis., is expecting her second child, a girl, on Thanksgiving. She said that President Trump was dismissing how extraordinarily careful many expectant mothers already are.
“Most pregnant people want what’s best for our children, and so we aren’t taking medication casually,” she said, adding that she treats headaches not with acetaminophen, but with rest and quiet time.
But she also suffers from gallstones. The pain of it is comparable, she said, to the pain she felt giving birth to her son, now 4. Surgery is not an option for Ms. Love during pregnancy. So she takes Tylenol, as her doctor recommended.
Almetria Turner, a doula in Memphis, said that confusing guidance from the highest levels of government could especially hurt Black women, whose pain is often dismissed, and women with low incomes, who may have less access to health care.
For women not within reach of a doctor, she said, Tylenol has a notable advantage: It is available in drugstores. “If you take that away, what are they supposed to do?” she said. “Just suffer through the pain, suffer through the fever, suffer through the headaches?”
Catherine Monk, a professor of women’s mental health at Columbia University, said that pregnancy was already stressful for so many women. “I don’t think anybody’s health is served by it feeling like a politicized topic,” she said.
She added that there was room for empathy on all sides. “There is just such an urgent, desperate need to identify the cause for this really upsetting diagnosis,” she said of autism, noting that in the most severe cases, people need help with the basics of living. “But we also can use the rational part of our minds to work to accept how this, like almost all neurodevelopmental disorders, is caused by very complex interacting factors, including environmental and genetic ones.”
Ms. Martinez, of Idaho, worried that people might follow the administration’s recommendations for political reasons, without considering the scientific consensus.
And she did not like the way the president talked about autistic people, like her brother, who is nonverbal. She hates the thought that her mother — or any mother — might blame herself for having a child with the disorder.
“It’s overwhelming,” Ms. Martinez said. “Pregnancy alone is overwhelming.”
Azeen Ghorayshi contributed reporting.
Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics across the country.
Sonia A. Rao reports on disability issues as a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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