Parenting today can feel like a never-ending exercise in risk management. We worry about what our kids eat, the air they breathe, and the schools they attend. Yet one of the most important questions rarely makes it into everyday conversation: Where do our children’s medications come from, and how confident are we in how they’re produced?

Becoming a mother brought this concern top of mind. Navigating doctors’ appointments for my little one led me to learn more about recommended treatments and how they were developed. My background in medicine and research empowered me to question drug safety, but many American families are left in the dark, unsure of which questions to ask or how to protect their loved ones.