There are various causes of pain in our bodies. The nervous system has multiple types of sensory nerves to interpret different "injuries" to our bodies. There are stretch receptors, pressure receptors, thermal receptors, and if you crush or cut a nerve fiber or receptor end it will send impulses back to the brain. Those impulses are interpreted to some extent by which fibers they are arriving on. If a crush injury occurs on your leg, all of the sensory nerves; i.e. pressure, stretch and thermal, are sending messages and the brain initially "reads" pain but it takes the eye, past experience and the minds computing of all of this input to understand what is really happening.
So, all pain medicines work to either block the pain messages from going down the fibers, or to alter the brains interpretation of the message. We sometimes separate these different modalities of pain relief as centrally acting or peripherally acting. Injectable medicines such as xylocaine work peripherally to block nerve impulses, while codiene works within the brain to alter the brains interpretation of the impulse. Pain medicines are also categorized into opioid and non-opioid analgesics. Tylenol or acetamenophine is a non-opioid while morphine is an opioid. Both are centrally acting..
One important process in our bodies that involves healing and defense is called inflammation. Inflammation is the mechanism whereby the body tries to kill, seal off and limit damage from insults whether they be infectious or traumatic. Inflammation is swelling, redness, production of heat, and is modulated by the immune system and immunochemicals. This process is started by a chemical reaction originating from a molecule called cyclooxygenase. It causes pain. Many of the commonly used pain relievers block this chemical reaction.
Steroids such as prednisone and hydrocortisone have long been known to block inflammation. They inhibit this inflammatory process in multiple ways sometimes to the bodies long term detriment. Drugs were developed that didn't have such broad suppression of the immune system but limited inflammation. These are called Non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs or NSAIDS. Ibuprofen, good old aspirin and Naprosyn are examples of common NSAIDS. Tylenol is not an NSAID which is important.
There is a part of the fetal circulation that allows blood to flow thru the heart and bypass the lungs. In the fetus the lungs play no real role in keeping it alive so not much blood is needed there while the baby is developing in the uterus. Science found that NSAIDS cause that bypass mechanism to close and the concern with using NSAIDS during pregnancy is that it will close. It is called the ductus arteriosis. It is really only theoretical and has never been confirmed to happen even in women who have uses NSAIDS during pregnancy. In fact, there is a type of NSAID called Indomethicine that was used for some time to help prevent preterm labor. No cases of premature closure of the ductus were ever found. Never the less, we don't recommend using these drugs during pregnancy. On the other hand there is no known dangers to using acetimeniphine or opioids during pregnancy in recommended amounts. No adverse effects have ever been shown to the fetus and thousands of women have used these drugs in large amounts.
In fact, treating a fever (which Tylenol is effective at reducing) and eliminating the pain of a headache is probably beneficial in pregnancy allowing the mothers normal bodily functions to proceed unhampered. Tylenol is safe to take during pregnancy.
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