Hello everyone, I haven't been on this forum since I was very ill with ppp. I am pretty much fully recovered bar the odd bump in the road. My youngest son is 3 in November.
Since being ill I have been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and take 300mg of quetiapine and 200mg of sertraline.
I am considering another pregnancy and just wondered if anyone has taken quetiapine or other antipsychotics during pregnancy? And what your experiences were?
Many thanks in advance!!
I was on serterline and quetiapine throughout my last pregnancy. I was always told it was safe and had no problems with the baby. They kept me in hospital after the birth for a couple days to monitor the baby to make sure she had no withdraw affects but all was fine x
Many thanks for your reply...did you receive any perinatal mental health care?
Yes I had the perinatal team from the 28th week of pregnancy I think, and had to see the mh recovery team too throughout pregnancy. Also regularly saw my health visitor and had a support worker. There was a lot of support to reduce the risk of ppp again x
How much were you taking?
200 serterline and only about 25 quetiapine through pregnancy then 300 after delivery but was allowed to breastfeed whilst on 300. I was quite stable during my pregnancy tho so only on very low dose x
I'm on 300mg now and 200 sertraline...I'm hoping I'll be ok if I was to get pregnant again...I desperately want another child but I'm very worried about a return of ppp
Just get as much support in place as you can if you get pregnant. And even if it did return, it’s only a very small time of your life compared to the life you have to share with your new baby. And there’s a 50/50 chance you might not get it at all. Good luck x
Many thanks...x
Exactly.
Baby gives you something to live for !!@
How much quetiapine did you take
I was on quetiapine after my first episode of pp I became pregnant with my second whilst I was still on the quetiapine. I decided I would gradually stop the quetiapine and by the time I was about 15 weeks pregnant I stopped the medication against most of my medical professionals advice. I unfortunately had pp a second time. Looking back for me I wish I had stayed on the quetiapine.
I found it initially very very hard having pp a second time but I finally really started to open up and let the health professionals help me. I’m lucky in that Ive made a good recovery fairly quickly (a year ago that I left hospital) and actually feel better then I’ve felt for a very long time. It’s a hard one and very personal to you and such a hard decision to make. Ultimately for me I have two little boys (2 and 1 years old) that everyday make me smile and although was hard initially, which was such a relatively short time that I was ill and I am now well and I’m so glad I went ahead with the second pregnancy.
Hi, I was given a diagnosis of bipolar a few years ago. I was taking 200mg quetapine during pregnancy, which I was told was lowest therapeutic dose to be effective. My baby is now 11 months and no issues. I became unwell with postpartum psychosis a few days after birth and they increased the dose to 500mg quetapine with support of mother and baby unit. 500mg and 100mg lamotrigine helped stabilise me within a period of 4 months postpartum.
So taking medication in pregnancy did not prevent illness. The 200mgs you did take did it effect baby
I took lithium last few wks of pregnancy. Then lithium and low dose of quetiapine to rest post birth. Good care plan essential. Epidural (,planned) helped a lot. Rest post baby esp night. Had two babies no relapse post PPP
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