Pregnancy/Xanax

[kat6895]

I'm 29 weeks pregnant.  I'm having severe stress and anxiety, mainly due to family crises.  I have a history of anxiety disorders.  I know that Xanax is what I need to cope and everything I read about it in pregnancy is about the 1st trimester.  What about early in the 3rd trimester?  I don't need it on a regular basis, only when I'm on the verge of a breakdown.  My anxiety and stress is so intense sometimes, it seems the benefit of taking a small dose of Xanax would be greater than not.

My OB and nurses all say the same thing:  "What you're going through is normal.  Don't take Xanax."  I believe some of this is normal, but my intensity level is definitely not.  I don't know why I haven't had a miscarriage.  It's scary.  Please respond back.

[1234betterlife]

i am a registered nurse and ob/gyn specialty. are you an addict?

[No name22]

I have been on clonipin for 6 yrs my daughter is 3 my dr tried buspar instead of the clonipin (Which clonipin is take as needed and buspar is not) I hated the buspar so she lowered my dose to 0.5mg's a day once a day and I went to a great dr also she was a high risk dr...But clonipin if used daily can become addictive...You should def call you're dr and make a apt for this.

[Spacemonkey]

I can definitely sympathize with your situation. My wife had a rough pregnancy with anxiety, etc... all over the map.  I can say with certainty that Xanax is not a good idea for your situation.  Xanax is very, very hard on the body and can trash your liver/kidneys pretty bad and pregnancy has already taxed these organs.  This sounds a little silly and counterintuitive but my wife's OB (with 25+ years of experience) told her to take low doses of Valium (but only very, VERY rarely) rather than clonapin or xanax. Clonapin is directly transmitted to babies through blood and breastmilk and xanax is just a bad idea for anyone with borderline health issues.

As a "general" rule, ANY tranqs while pregnant are not a good idea but sometimes it's better to take SOMETHING rather than put the baby through the anxiety related stress that YOU are going through. It's a very fine line with camps on both sides of the fence.  Don't be suprised if you get some really negative comments if you bring this up.  Look up xanax and valium on-line and read up on the effects on pregnancy so you can know some facts when you speak to the dr. again.  Good luck.