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Epilepsy, pregnancy and giving birth

Mon, 01/21/2008 - 10:14

Good morning,

I am very curious to hear the experience of women while they were pregnant, and during labor & birth of a child. 

How did the pain, stress affect your epilepsy, and was it easy to manage seazures? I am trying to figure out how to deal with the actual birth process, and I am seriously considering a c-cection, where I would like to be under total anesteshia. I would love to go through the natural birth, no epidural or pain med, but I am worried that the pain of labor will give me seizures. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I am not taking any meds for epilepsy, as my seizures are only about once a year...and I know the trigger, so I avoid doing things that I know could trigger the seizure.

 

Thank you all so much,

Sonja C.

Comments

Re: Epilepsy, pregnancy and giving birth

Submitted by Clarasmommy08 on Wed, 2009-12-30 - 04:19
Hi, i got pregnant and gave birth to my daughter before i figured out i had epilepsy. I would say that there wasn't a huge increase in seizures (now that i know what they are and look back on them), and i dont think the birth process effected my epilepsy at all. But every person is different any every pregnancy is different. I would say it depends on how bad your seizures are, what type of seizures they are and what type of epilepsy you have. Good luck though.

Re: Epilepsy, pregnancy and giving birth

Submitted by lb34 on Thu, 2010-01-07 - 23:59

Hi, 

I just delivered a 7lb 14oz baby boy on Dec 1 2009.  I am 41 years old and have every type of szr from simple to grand mal and was on 4 different aeds when I concieved and was tapered down to just two (Zonegran 600 qhs and Keppra 1500 2x/day) by the time I delivered.  I have adult onset epilepsy. I have one other child who is 10 years old who I was able to have completely natural... no meds, no IV, less than 6 hours in the hospital before I delivered. So, I wanted the same for this one but felt the exact same fears you are going through.  I had every Christian I knew praying and sought out the most knowledgable OB around.  The local hospital did not have high risk OB or an NICU and so we decided to drive a little ways to get both, I also called the local Bradley instructor who said the local chapter had only had one epileptic deliver naturally that they new of in their entire history.  Things were not looking good, so I went to the C section classes and talked to my OB who said that delivering naturally would be the best thing for both me and my child if at all possible but that I should be ready for both especially since my seizures were still not controlled.

When all was said and done all 4D ultrasounds showed a perfectly healthy baby boy  despite all the meds and grand mal (tonic clonic) seizures while he was in utero and on December 1st (1week late) they induced me with high dose pitocin and I was still able to have a completely natural childbirth with absolutely no auras or seizures!!!! I did get scared when he was in the canal but nothing adverse happened and he is a perfect, healthy, happy,  alert, baby...who keeps me up at night.  So, all things are possible with God and don't let all those stats scare you ( I know it is hard so, I wanted to share with you some of the postive stats as well).  I wish you the best.  LB34

Hi, 

I just delivered a 7lb 14oz baby boy on Dec 1 2009.  I am 41 years old and have every type of szr from simple to grand mal and was on 4 different aeds when I concieved and was tapered down to just two (Zonegran 600 qhs and Keppra 1500 2x/day) by the time I delivered.  I have adult onset epilepsy. I have one other child who is 10 years old who I was able to have completely natural... no meds, no IV, less than 6 hours in the hospital before I delivered. So, I wanted the same for this one but felt the exact same fears you are going through.  I had every Christian I knew praying and sought out the most knowledgable OB around.  The local hospital did not have high risk OB or an NICU and so we decided to drive a little ways to get both, I also called the local Bradley instructor who said the local chapter had only had one epileptic deliver naturally that they new of in their entire history.  Things were not looking good, so I went to the C section classes and talked to my OB who said that delivering naturally would be the best thing for both me and my child if at all possible but that I should be ready for both especially since my seizures were still not controlled.

When all was said and done all 4D ultrasounds showed a perfectly healthy baby boy  despite all the meds and grand mal (tonic clonic) seizures while he was in utero and on December 1st (1week late) they induced me with high dose pitocin and I was still able to have a completely natural childbirth with absolutely no auras or seizures!!!! I did get scared when he was in the canal but nothing adverse happened and he is a perfect, healthy, happy,  alert, baby...who keeps me up at night.  So, all things are possible with God and don't let all those stats scare you ( I know it is hard so, I wanted to share with you some of the postive stats as well).  I wish you the best.  LB34

Re: Epilepsy, pregnancy and giving birth

Submitted by April Freeman on Tue, 2010-01-12 - 16:07
Hi, I have had epilepsy my whole life. Well I was scared of getting pregnant as well, but it kind of happened. My whole pregnancy was pretty easy. I did have 2 grandma seizures. I went to the ER and they checked both times and the baby was just fine. When it came to delivery my doctor told me she wanted me to have a normal delivery. She was afraid that if I did a c-section I might have a seizure. I had a perfect delivery. I only had to push for 30 minutes which is stressful and that causes seizures, but it was a breeze! After my delivery I didn't have a seizure for 4 months, and then they came back. I would love to have another baby, but I'm having the surgery next month and I'm going to wait till I recover from that. I wish you the best!

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