Seizures in pregnancy - help/ideas needed...

[jane86]

Hello everyone. I am 32 weeks pregnant atm. Currently taking Lamictal and Oxcarbezpine. My seizures happen in my sleep. They are actually playing up the more pregnant I am. Is anyone else experiencing the same situation?

My Epilepsy nurse wants to put me on Clobazpam (10mg) until I am 38 weeks then reduce it to 5mg after. The reason being is the baby will have withdrawal symptoms to the drug. That really upsets me, I would like to stay away from that option if possible, but, I am getting hardly any sleep at night which is affecting me in the day. I can't take a nap either as it will make me have a fit.

Does anyone have any ideas I could try before I go down the extra drug route? I'd appreciate any ideas.

Thanks in advance!

Jane

[Kiera49]

I was on high dose of lamictal anf didnt have any seizures and had no probs with my baby either

[jane86 in reply to Kiera49]

your lucky. Wish I was in your position! The lamictal I am on is fine it's the Clobazam that does the harm. Im happy you and baby are healthy. well done!

[AmyBadd]

Hi Jane,

I have a little boy who is now 13 months. When I was pregnant I was taking sodium valproate as this is the only drug that works for me. As my pregnancy went on my symptoms got worse and my neurologist suggested that it was probably because of the increase in blood volume. I think it's something like by the time you are half way through your pregnancy your blood volume has increased by 50%. Because of this your medication is kind of watered down, if you see what I mean. Therefore, we increased my usual dosage slightly to counter this effect a little bit. This might be an option for you as well. Remember you are now past the most dangerous stages of pregnancy with respect to taking anti-epileptic drugs.

I also am prescribed clobazam 10mg to take only when I feel that I am at risk of seizures, or when I have had one to stop me having more. This is because it is a very fast acting medication (works in 20 mins). We were also warned about the withdrawal symptoms but in spot of this we were advised to take it approximately every 12 hours (maximum dose) during my labour as this was the time my body was under the most stress. Therefore, I took clobazam 10mg several times probably once every 2 or 3 days during the last few weeks of my pregnancy (the last 3 weeks or so were really tough for me, I also got really bad pelvic girdle pains during this period and could barely walk).

I was induced a week early and it was a couple of days before I gave birth. I therefore took several doses of Clobazam during these days. My baby was fine and still is, but I would give you a warning if you do take it during labour: my neurologist warned us it would slow the baby's heartbeat a little as it is a seductive. He also wrote a letter explaining all this to the obstetric team. They monitored me and my unborn baby very closely and in fact found his heartbeat was slowed. The problem is that even though we knew why this was happening and therefore me and my husband weren't really that worried, the obstetric team insisted on keeping doing lots of tests, like blood tests from my baby's head while he was still inside me. We didn't really want them doing all these things. We also wanted to have a good long skin to skin session immediately after the birth but we only just got to see him briefly before he was whisked away to a corner where we couldn't see him to have more tests. It wasn't really that long, but it seemed it at the time and was upsetting and not really what we wanted. Anyway, just a warning.

I'm sure you'll be fine. Might be a good idea to talk it through with your neurologist, but I would certainly suggest taking clobazam at least once every few days (it also helps you sleep with it being a sedative) as it will help you have at least one or two more settled nights and the baby won't get withdrawal symptoms if you have it only occasionally.

Good luck with it all!

Amy

[Hidden]

I take clobazam 10mgs at night for epilepsy, I don't see this harming yourself. I also take lamictal & zonegran. I'm a male.

[jane86 in reply to Hidden]

It's not harming me I am worried about, it's my baby being born with withdrawal symptoms. Thank you for your comment

[imthebest1]

honesty i take levatariam and it helps me with my seizures i can sleep too.i have two kids.and i kinda had that problem with my last pregnancy.all though i lost them but they fo help i take them 2 times in a day and has reduce my seizures.sorry i dont know how to spell it well the name of the medicine.i was born with epylepsy.