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Taking oral contraceptives shortly after, before, or during pregnancy doesn't lead to higher risk of birth defects, according to a new study.

Time reported that there is not enough research on whether the circulating sex hormones from the birth control pill have any risk of birth defect on the fetus. US and Denmark researchers studied Danish birth registers for births from January 1997 to March 2011. The researchers also checked the prescription information listed in the national registries to determine whether the use of women's oral contraceptive leads to early pregnancy.

The researchers found that 8 percent stopped taking oral contraceptives not more than three months before they got pregnant and only one percent used oral contraceptives while pregnant.

Harvard Medical School instructor and author of the study Brittany M. Charlton said, "Many women stop using oral contraceptives when planning a pregnancy and conceive within just a few months. In both of those examples, a woman may inadvertently expose her offspring during pregnancy to exogenous sex hormones."

Get Healthy wrote that the researchers found that the rates of birth defects among women who never took oral contraceptives, those who took them while they were pregnant, and those who took them before they knew they were pregnant are the same, which is about 25 out of every 1,000 infants.

"Women who become pregnant either soon after stopping oral contraceptives, or even while taking them, should know that this exposure is unlikely to cause the fetus to develop a birth defect," said Charlton. "This should reassure women as well as their doctors."

According to the Tribune, Charlton said there were studies in the past that found a link between hormone-based contraceptives and birth defects. However, she argues that most did not.

However, she gave a disclaimer saying that her study only shows that there is no link between birth control pills and birth defects. However, it doesn't prove that oral contraceptives don't lead to birth defects.