Anyone have experience with seizure meds and pregnancy?

[martikadragoon]

I'm wanting to go for baby #3 but am on Dilantin 100mg 3x a day for seizures and right now insurance is a bust....literally I'm expected to pay over $1300 per month for insurance before they'll cover anything and we can't afford that at all.

I know that with pregnancy seizures can increase in about %30 of women and I've done research and found another med that can be safer...
i'm on BCP's but the med causes them to not always work like they should (like antibiotics would do) so I take vitamins and 4mg (MG not Mcg) of Folic acid daily...just in case.

[dtravis87]

no problem:) and im not sure why it wouldnt be maybe ask your neuroligist if they have ever heard of it or if the have something similar to it hopefully you can find one with few (if any) side effects that works for you as well good luck and let me know how you make out with finding a decent medication

[martikadragoon]

thank you for posting. I looked up the medication, and unfortunately it's not available in the U.S. I wonder why???. Thank you very much for your suggestion  

[dtravis87]

Im 21 weeks pregnant and have been having seziures since I was 17...after trying differnt meds that had alot of weird side effects I finally switched to a neuroligist that actually seemed to use his brain...he has me on 30mg of Novo-clobazam each night like I have been for the past 6 or so years. These meds seem to have no real side effects and when I started taking the medication I asked my neuroligst about what may happen if I became pregnant and he said that it just made me be a little bit higher of a risk for a birth defect if I did not take the extra folic acid as I always have......My daughter is developing perfectly and all of her oragns body parts brain etc are all coming along normally as I do see a "high risk" pregnancy clinic that checks for all of these things and at my last appt last week the drs told me that Im at the same risk as any other pregnant women (3-5%)  and after speaking with my neuroligist he did make it very clear that it would be worse for both myself and my unborn daughter for me to stop taking the medications at all during the pregnancy so my suggestion to you is find a good neuroligist who will put you on an affordable (which mine is) and has little to no side effects good luck oh and my seziures are the same as yours the grand maul and like I said the 30mg of Novo Clobazam works (and the 30mg is less then what they can give a 2 yrs old of it which is up to 50mg)

[martikadragoon]

I've discussed it a little with my doctor. He told me about the %30 of women who have more seizures during pregnancy and that it is more dangerous for those who have Grand Mal seizures (like me) to be off meds since we can fall and hit our stomachs/heads....

There are 2 meds that are relatively ok. I really just wanted some real life experiences from other women. :)

[Linzola1]

Cindie... I have a friend who was on Dilantin and she was taken off all seziure meds when she was pregnant! When she is pregnant is the only time that she does not have seziures! Have you discussed this with your doctor? They should be able to tell you what seziure meds are considered safe in pregnancy!

[martikadragoon]

Thank you for responding! I'm pretty knowledgable in alot of areas regarding pregnancy but this is a new one to me. I've done research but just want to hear from real moms, know what I mean?

thanks for sharing with me. Keppra was one of the meds that showed up in my research as one of the safer ones.
I'm sending you a personal message so please check your inbox.

cindie

[cbarrs]

I am 20 weeks pregnant and have a recently diagnosed seizure disorder. I was on Depakote but stopped when I found out I was pregnant and my neurologist told me the meds were dangerous but it was my choice. Had some other issues so went to see ob specialist and they strongly disagreed with my neuro! Depakote is one of the stronger seizure meds and has been known to cause birth defects so we agreed I would get back on a less potent med Keppra. They told me it was much more dangerous to be off the meds then to be on them. Not sure if this helps but I know there are other med options out there.