Chlorhexidine (oral mucosal)

Pregnancy: Teratogenic Effect Reproduction studies have been performed in rats and rabbits at chlorhexidine gluconate doses up to 300 mg/kg/day and 40 mg/kg/day, respectively, and have not revealed evidence of harm to fetus. However, adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women have not been done. Because animal reproduction studies are not always predictive of human response, this drug should be used during pregnancy only if clearly needed.

Nursing Mothers It is not known whether this drug is excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, caution should be exercised when chlorhexidine gluconate oral rinse is administered to nursing women. In parturition and lactation studies with rats, no evidence of impaired parturition or of toxic effects to suckling pups was observed when chlorhexidine gluconate was administered to dams at doses that were over 100 times greater than that which would result from a person's ingesting 30 mL (2 capfuls) of chlorhexidine gluconate oral rinse per day.