Pregnant during COVID when you have Behcets

[MrsB1]

I’m 11 weeks into pregnancy. I’ve been taken off almost all of the medication that was controlling my disease and pain, and placed on Clexane and aspirin by my obstetrician. I haven’t gone into pregnancy remission (as some do) and my joint pain is pretty overwhelming. Few questions for ladies who are pregnant during COVID also.

1. Have you gone into any kind of remission?

2. How are you controlling the joint pain? (If you have it)

3. My obstetrician wants to scan me at 12, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 weeks. Do you have a similar pattern?

4. Are you on Clexane? It hurts like a MF. Any tips on how to reduce the pain.

5. Are you terrified about how your meds might have affected the baby? I can’t stop going over it.

6. Going in to a hospital after shielding seems like the worst idea in the world. I have HUGE anxiety about going to the hospital so many times. Any idea on how to reduce the stress of that?

7. If you’ve given birth during Covid would you mind sharing your birth story? How was it? I heard no birthing pool, only 1 person allowed to be with you and no visitors. All makes sense but how did you feel about it?

Anyway. Congratulations on your pregnancy. I’m ecstatic/ terrified and I’m sure you are xx

[Lara1]

Hello, my experience is not recent - I had my daughter 5 years ago but I already had BD at the time (and MS) and had to stop the meds (colchicine & medrol) during the pregnancy. I also took a couple Clexane shots as recommended by my first gynecologist because I had a very high d-dimer value in my bloodwork and she was afraid I’d get clots. After the 2nd shot of Clexane I started getting intense pain in my left lung and had problems breathing so I stopped the med immediately and changed gynecologists. In terms of how I felt - better in the first 2 trimesters and worse in the third - the BD seemed to get worse. I’m not 100% sure but I think I read somewhere that I could have continued my anti inflammatory meds if the benefits outweighed the risks to the baby so maybe check with your doc depending on what meds you’re normally on. I was also afraid of the side effects but I would be less now because of the small dosages I was on and the types of drugs. I did get joint pain but it was bearable. I would sometimes use voltaren or ibuprofen creams for it.

Re the anxiety - Having 2 autoimmune diseases I was very scared of covid and going to hospitals at first. But several months later I’ve found wearing a mask religiously (or better, wear 2 on top of each other), washing/ désinfecting hands regularly and keeping social distancing do work. On the other hand, my daughter got exposed recently at her daycare which is the perfect pétri dish environment where none of the above apply unlike hospitals which take a lot of precautions. So do what works and tell yourself you did everything in your power to protect yourself and your baby and that should bring you some peace of mind. Best of luck to you! Be strong and I’m sure it’ll all go well!