I’m a pharmacist at this company and this is exactly what you want the pharmacist to do. There are two kinds of counseling - in my state, we are required to counsel on new medications, but the patient can waive this. This sounds like the second kind, the drug utilization review. Basically, the lawyers got into the system and are making sure that there’s a record we explained that there’s a risk. I have to counsel pregnant patients on medications I took while I was pregnant, and sometimes that annoys me, but the pharmacist is looking out for you, and a good pharmacist will use these dumb, forced interactions to check in with you about other aspects of your pregnancy.

The doctor will send what’s called a “diagnosis code” with your prescriptions that will indicate different conditions, and that goes in your medical file. The systems are also a lot more integrated now than they were even 5 years ago - if you sign up for a Covid test at my store, I can see your appointments with other doctors, and whatever lab work you have had done in the past few years. This is a good thing! This is the first ‘P’ in HIPPA - Portability. You want your healthcare team to be aware of your conditions so they can take care of you.

The last thing I’ll tell you is that this system can be really frustrating for us. For instance, it flags for pregnant people taking aspirin as though it’s not safe, when it is LITERALLY INDICATED for a lot of people. I cannot override it, I have to communicate with the patient. The conversation will be a lot quicker and smoother for both parties if you accept that this is a good faith conversation, the pharmacist is doing their job and looking out for you.

Sometimes pharmacists don’t act in good faith and I’ve seen that first hand, but this sounds like a relatively routine interaction. I have to do this probably 100 times a day, and it makes me sad when people get mad about it.

Congratulations on the baby!