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terrified to get pregnant
Sat, 09/19/2009 - 11:59Hello,
My name is Linzy and I am 26 years old. I was diagnosed with Absence seizures when I was 23. I have been on a boat load of medications to control them and now I am on Lamictal which has done the best so far. I have been increased recently because of some breakthrough seizures. My husband and I have decided to have a baby and I am terrified for the health of the baby. My doctor told me that Lamictal can cause cleft lip, palate etc., to the fetus and that I cannot breast feed. I take 125mg of lamictal in the morning and at night. I have always dreamed of having children - healthy children. I would love my child no matter what but doesn't everyone want healthy children, free of defects? I have also always dreamed of breast feeding. I was pretty devastated when my doc told me that I wouldn't be able to breast feed my child. I want to be able to have that connection with my baby. I guess I am just hoping for some similar stories and to know that there are people out there who understand where I am coming from and how much of an impact seizures can put on your life even if they are just absence.
UPDATE (May 5, 2011): I thought that I would update this thread :) I am happy to tell you all that I am the very proud mother of a happy, healthy and totally normal 9 month old son =) I got pregnant shortly after posting this thread and my whole pregnancy and delivery was completely normal, problem free and most important of all, seizure free!! Towards the end of my pregnancy I did accumulate too much amniotic fluid but it wasn't a worry at all and my water ended up just breaking on its own 2 days after my due date which kicked off 21 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing, to which I welcomed a very healthy 7lb 14oz baby boy (with the help of the vacuum because he was coming down at an angle and was a bit stuck!). He was pretty jaundice for a while because he ended up getting some of my blood during delivery but that went away within 2 weeks. He does have an undescended teste which is fairly normal in boys anyway and has nothing to do with the lamictal. He already had the first surgery to fix that and is doing awesome. I haven't had any seizures since before I got pregnant which is really awesome since I was having them fairly often. And which is even more amazing seeing as my soon to be ex-husband wanted a divorce right before we found out I was pregnant and wanted one even faster once we found out I was pregnant a week later. I ended up having to move 9 hours away back to my hometown while I was terribly sick with morning sickness. To go through all of that stress and not have a seizure is pretty awesome I think! I was really scared about birth defects and such when I was ttc but now I know how small of a chance those things are especially with lamictal and in the future if I find someone else to spend the rest of my life with I will have no fears about having more children. Thank you all for your support and for sharing your stories! I wish you all the best of luck!
Re: terrified to get pregnant
Submitted by phylisfjohnson on Mon, 2012-11-26 - 19:10
There are no anti-seizure drugs that are 100 per cent without risk of causing birth defects. But some anti-seizure medications appear to be more dangerous than others and your doctor may be able to avoid prescribing them. Here’s what doctors know so far: * Depakote and Depakene seem to carry the highest risk of damage to the baby, particularly neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. * Phenobarbital or Depakote during pregnancy may affect future intelligence of the child, but this can occur with other AEDs as well. * Dilantin (Phenytoin) and barbiturates can cause cleft lip or palate, or other skull, face, or heart malformations. * Depakote (Valproic Acid) and, to a smaller extent Tegretol (Carbamazepine and Carbatrol), are linked to open spine problems. * Tegretol can also cause “minor defects,” such as fingernail malformations, or mild facial feature distortions, that often resolve by age five years. * Lamictal can also cause breakthrough seizures during pregnancy. That’s because metabolism of Lamictal – as well as other antiepileptic drugs — increases during pregnancy. This can cause a drop in the level of anti-seizure medication in your system. If that level gets too low, you could have a seizure. But if your doctor prescribes a higher dose of Lamictal to make sure that you don’t have breakthrough seizures, there could be a higher risk of damage to your baby. So it’s a delicate balance. The best rule is to use the single medicine that is most effective in treating your seizures, but with some bias toward the newer FDA category C antiepileptic drugs such as: Neurontin, Topamax, Zonegran, Trileptal, Lyrica and Vimpat. But make sure your doc is up to date on all the newest research. Because information about the safety of anti-seizure drugs during pregnancy literally changes from month to month. Which makes managing epilepsy during pregnancy very challenging. If you have any questions, check with the Epilepsy Foundation. Pregnancy Registries Several pregnancy registries track safety of AEDs. Participation is free and the registry will both provide you with information and help the epilepsy community to better understand the safety of AEDs during pregnancy. It’s a good idea to contact one of the registries if you have epilepsy and are pregnant. A list and links can be found at: The Antiepilepsy Drug (AED) Pregnancy Registry 1-888-233-2334 www.massgeneral.org/aed Gabapentin (Neurontin) Pregnancy Registry 617-638-7751 Lamotrigine (Lamictal) Pregnancy Registry 1-800-336-2176 http://pregnancyregistry.gsk.com/lamotrigene.html Phylis Feiner Johnson www.epilepsytalk.com