Is it safe to have a baby???

[Dannichiari]

Hello!
As some of you may know I have arnold chiari malformation, syrongymelia and hydrocephalus, I have had 12 operations and I must admitt I do suffer with pain. My last operation was a year ago. I know a few women who have Arnold chiari malformation and have children, but would it be safe for me to have a baby? Would I be able to get pregnant safely and would I be able to carry for 9 months? My partner is worried that I am not well enough yet because I get pain on a daily basis, however the way I see it is that I will always have pain, surely that shouldn't stop us having a child? Any advice regarding this would be very much appreciated, I feel as though I am ready to become a mum.

Thank you
Xxxx

[selmaS]

  Hi, may I ask, ,do you have Chiari as well as a tipped cervix? Or any other related condition?.....

If you do, have you had surgery for it yet?

[Jlatronica]

Thank you for your posting.We never put it together. I was told because of tipped cervix, I would never be able to get prego but I did. My first delivered two amazingly beautiful babies.  After wards of the first one I had a headache 4 months. Then I lost my below  right eye entral vision and I lost hearing in the low frequencies of the same side. I hope this helps somewhat.

[pipadelapaz]

Hi Dannichiari, I have not read any of the above replies because I did not want anything to influence my reply to you….  my one and only experience with 3 births,have been totally natural births. With my first child I was very very scared to give birth because of what consequences it would have on my Syringomyelia and Chiari so I decided to give birth almost hand in hand with my neurologist! to make a very veeeery (20 hour long labor) very short, I pushed my lungs, tonsils and heart out for hours and hours because my baby girl did not want to come out! Never was I told I was not to PUSH PUSH PUSH, until I was pregnant with my fifth child …. did a Neurologist tell me I should not have a natural birth….well too late I had already had three birth pushing my brains out!!!!!!!! Sadly I miscarried my fifth child and till now, I do not know of a Cesarean Birth! I am in great health with pain, yes, but bearable! I do everything I want except for extreme sports…but I love my life and Chiari will not absolutely not ruin my life….the Last Word comes from My GOD! NOT FROM MY DOC!

[chrissi_b]

hiya it is genetic but not always my eldest son has chiari and it looks like my cousin and mum have it aswell they are awaiting results so it can be genetic just not always. i too would like to know if i'm safe to have children from what i'm reading it depends on how well you are. xx

[Sexybare]

I have 2 boys ages 13 and 15. I had them very young, for I am only 32. I didn't know til march of 2011 that I had chiari and went with the chiari runaround for over 5 years. The decision to have a baby is yours as long as you know the risks and speak to obgyn and your ns, nl about it first. I wish you luck

[missadl]

I have 4 kids that range in age from 15 to 2 I didn't find out that I had cm1 till 4 months ago. That being said I could not work when I was pregnant because I was always so tired and achy.

[tink_0427]

I have had 3 pregnancies which produced 3 beautiful boys. I was diagnosed with Chiari when I got an MRI 6 weeks after I had my last son. My headaches flared up and became horrible during my last pregnancy.
I did, however, have all 3 of my children c-section (I have huge babies and I'm not a very big girl). My husband and I have not decided whether another baby is in the cards for us or not...

[nurseling07]

I had my daughter just before I found out about my chiari. I had an emergency c-section only because she was a large baby. I did have some dizziness and headaches while pushing but since you know ahead of time they would be able to
schedule a planned cesarean and I would think you and your baby would be fine. Of course I would ask both your NS and OB/GYN before hand. Best of luck with your growing family :-)

[Dannichiari]

Wow! Thank you girls for all your advice, I wasn't expecting this much advice, and I'm very very greatful :) I do have a cat and a dog and it's hard just looking after them so I can see where people are coming from. I'm going to ask various doctors and get advice, but from what you all are saying I do think that having a child would be very hard and I don't wanna put that child through pain, I also don't want to mis carry, I do have a lot of problems, so I could be putting myself in danger. Thank you :)

How is everyone? I would like to know everyone's chiari experience.. I hope everyone is having a pain free day!

Danni
Xxx

[RheaAnn]

Thanks! It actually hadn't crossed my mind to look here for more threads! haha Checking them out now!
She carries title of Dr. bc of her Doctor of Nursing degree. She was practicing as a NP, but I believe now she is more research oriented.

[selmaS]

  I just wanted to point out that the books u r  referring to r co-written by Dr Oro and a Nurse Diane Mueller, she is not a Dr.

  And if u use the search thsi community feature u will find more threads on this topic including Diane Mueller.

[RheaAnn]

There are books written by Drs. John J Oro and Diane Mueller. I also read several (several!!) write ups about many studies that Dr. Mueller had performed on the research part of the website **********.***. She goes into some detail about patients with CM and their birth plans. These were studies that look back retrospectively, so they were not followed through out the whole process. Anyway, she may be the doctor with the most research into this particular area.

Best of luck!

[Crys86]

I'm with Viva too.. it's hard raising kids with CM. Especially when they are gogogo and your going has already gone for the day. I have some days that I feel like a complete failure at parenting because they want to do things and I'm too down and can't get up and go. Especially if you ever end up being a single parent like I am. It is completely exhausting and if I didn't have family near by I don't think I would survive. The headaches plus highly active (LOUD) kids running through the house are a lot to take in too some days. I remember my daughter having colic.. she and I both would be crying together.. me with a headache and her crying loudly making it that much worse and her with a belly ache. But so far I'm still surviving :). Just it's a struggle some days.

[selmaS]

  Hi...only u and ur Drs can answer this question....I do know of a woman that had a child and at 3 months after the child  was born, the woman passed, they had no idea she had chiari and said it was just normal post natal type .....U really have to look into the fact that u do know and that u had surgery and r already in pain, being pregnant can up ur BP and with ICP which u also have I would consider this a higher risk then someone that just had Chiari.

Yes, they do say those with chiari can have children and a C-section is suggested, but like the surgery there is no way to say what the outcome may be.

Talk with ur NS, and an OBGYN that can consult with ur NS b4 u make this decision....

I have 1 child, and did so yrs b4 I had a DX and it was very hard on me, holding her and not knowing what was going on....I was in the hospital for 5 days as I had a CSF leak from a epidural....I do not think I would have survived more and am amazed at the many members here that do,

  Please give this some thought, and then think about adoption as a possible option if the Drs r against it.

Good Luck <3

[The_Marine_Corp_Brat]

i had a 2 babies the first one not knowing i had chiari ..the second one not knowing the name of the condition I had just that my brain was to big for my skull. When I look back on a lot of things that happened during both pregnancies things make a little more sense. I would pass out a lot have HA because of pressure I felt in my head and I would get dizzy almost everyday, and faint at the drop of a hat! lol! ..I was rushed to the ER for passing out with my first son but they had no idea why .....I was lucky with both of mine they were both natural but both easy, I didn't have to push hard or anything in fact the nurse told me to stop mid-push with my second one and when I did she just looked at me ..i had horrible headaches and balance through out the whole pregnancy ...and after but had them before as well, I just didn't know with the first one that I had CM and the Dr. didn't tell me the name of my "birth defect" as he called it he just said it's been there since birth your symptoms are getting worse but no big deal...this was a NL that said this btw....
If you are going to have a baby knowing what condition you have get checked out by your Dr. first! Make sure your OBGYN knows your condition and all the possible problems that can arise due to it. you will probably be considered a high risk pregnancy and monitored closely especially toward the end if they agree that your body is physically in shape to carry a child to term. the other thing you need to consider is the medications that you take. Most of the medications that I am on I know they wouldn't allow me to get pregnant right now b/c of the potential harm and defects to the baby, so that is something else you need to consider and that they will consider, is medications. Hope this helps!

[SimmyRae]

yea it really gets tough some days with my 3 year old because she wants to go go go and to be honest some days i just cant ): but i manage and i wouldn't trade it for anything. Im thankful to have my mother in law and my mom that will take her once a week just so i can have a full days of rest r if i have a day i cant get out of bed..but for the most part i manage to do it ...it may be tough but for me its well worth it ..and she by no means suffers from me having it either. she is a very happy healthy and hyper 3 year old (: but it is def a big thing to consider..i for one want another child but as of now im not until i get better control of my symptoms.

[Viva001]

One thing that never seems to get mentioned is that people are going to have a child, not just a baby.  I have 5 pets, and they give me both a reason to get up, but also make my life much more difficult.  I could personally could never take care of a child.
Best of luck to you in your decision!

[SimmyRae]

i mean im no dr and each person is different and may have different concerns..so i would just talk to multiple drs and get some opinions first. GOODLUCK hun (: hope you are about to have a beautiful baby.

[Crys86]

As stated above there are multiple things that say CM is genetic, there are mothers/fathers on here that have children with CM as well. I'm having my kids tested for it. I know my 8yo son cries with HA's a lot :/. Not to scare you or anything. I however had 3 children, one was a normal vaginal childbirth (I didn't know I had Chiari at the time either and he was born at 32 Wks as well.. I never made it to full term with any of my pregnancies.). My other 2 were c-sections because I ended up having a lot of problems; premature labor, subchronic hematoma, uterine rupture (last pregnancy), placenta abruption (last pregnancy), incompetent cervix, and I ended up needing a
hysterectomy.. I don't know any of my problems had anything to do with Chiari or Eds or anything else. But I delivered two micropreemies (1lb 6oz and 2lbs 7oz both of which are alive and healthy today). For some reason my body kept deciding it was time to go into labor about the time I hit 15-20 weeks. My son was born at 32 weeks (my first pregnancy), my daughter was born the day I hit 24 weeks because my water randomly broke, and my last pregnancy I was pregnant with twins (my water broke with one twin at 19 weeks and she didn't survive) I carried my daughter to 29 weeks and ended up going into labor and had problems. While I can't give you anything nice with my experiences, I also can't say they had anything to do with Chiari. But it would be best to think about should you go into premature labor (since it's not impossible with anyone) before your scheduled c-sections (I was having scheduled ones too) how that will affect your hydrocephalus and things until you make it to a hospital. I didn't have hydrocephalus or anything like that.. I say do whatever you think you can do. Just keep in mind the medicines you may be on now to control your pain, you will probably have to stop taking. As well as if you need any other surgeries during pregnancy it may affect the baby. I hope you figure it out and if you do decide a baby is your option you have a safe pregnancy and a healthy 9lb baby :)

[SimmyRae]

the pushing can make things worse*

[SimmyRae]

i had a baby not knowing i had chiari ..now that i look back everything makes sense. i would pass out alot cause of pressure i felt in my head and i would get dizzy almost everyday ..i was hospitalized for falling ...after i later found out my dr said it was probably they increase pressure in my head..during birth i got so dizzy i almost passed out (natural) ..i had horrible headaches and balance through out the whole pregnancy ...not to mention after birth is when all these symptoms flared up. i cant directly say it was the chiari that caused this but seems to me that is what it was from.

i asked my dr about this because i really would like to have another child..he said now that we know i have it there is precautions i can take and i would have to be monitored closely but it is possible..and that a natural birth is out of the question..that the pushing cant make things much worse. so i guess its up to the person .

[Dannichiari]

Agree with you CW, however I was told that we would need a C section instead of giving birth if this makes sense? I am seeing my chiari specialist in 2 weeks so I shall ask him too :) if all fails, adoption it is!

Danni

[ChiariWolf]

CM is genetic. As for childbirth, I'm no doctor, but have heard the reasons it is advised against is the build up of CSF pressure during birth. Similar to why some of us get severe HA during a bowl movement, though one can imagine you would need to multiply that a hundredfold.

CW

[Dannichiari]

Oh wait a second, I think I'm slightly confused lol. I thought you meant that chiari was passed down from a family member, if so I don't think it is.. I don't think anyone knows 100%

Danni