Lamictal - pregnancy and breastfeeding.

[Nuala12]

Hi everyone - has anybody had a baby whilst on lamictal? How are they? The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology says women on lamotrigine should be encouraged to breastfeed. Has anyone done this? Or used a combined system? How did it go?

[Nuala12]

300mg daily - working well so reluctant to change medication.

[AmyBadd]

Hi,

As far as I am aware there are no known pregnancy risks with lamictal. Unfortunately it did not control my seizures and neither did keppra so I have to take epilim (sodium valproate). This is known to increase the risk of birth defects.

I had a baby in May. Before I got pregnant we reduced my medication to a much lower dose. Unfortunately this meant I had a couple of seizures during pregnancy but was still mostly controlled.

Now I am back on a higher dose. This is necessary because sleep deprivation is s key trigger for me. However I am managing to breastfeed and we just give him an bottle of expressed breast milk after any feeds at night so that we are up less time and to help him sleep for longer before the next feed.

It also really helped that my husband took a few weeks of work using the new shared parental leave system so he was able to help me out a lot more. I have only had one tonic/clonic seizure since Jack was born and that was after 4 days, so probably related to the exhaustion from the labour, adjusting to feeding at night and still being on a low dose.

My little boy will be 3 months old tomorrow and is perfectly happy and healthy

Amy

[EpilepsyAction1 Partner Epilepsy Action]

Hi nuala12

I’m not quite sure where you are the process. If you are just starting to think about having a baby that’s excellent. All the advice says it’ really good to plan this well ahead. There is a small extra risk to the baby if you are on lamotrigine: epilepsy.org.uk/info/women/...

Here is our information on breastfeeding. We aren’t aware of any particular problems with lamotrigine and breastfeeding. But as the replies from other people suggest, expressing some milk as well will give you more options in terms of sleeping.

Here is all our information on epilepsy and having a baby.

I hope all goes well for you.

Regards

Cherry

Epilepsy Action Helpline Team

[Nuala12]

Thank you! Yes - just starting to plan.

[Wintersbite]

I had 3 boys on lamotrigine had to bottle feed all of them my oldest was affected the worst by floppy neck and thay said I didn't have enough milk to feed them as soon as thay stopped taking my milk thay got stronger so unfortunately in my case bottle was best

[Nuala12]

Floppy neck?

[Nuala12]

Thanks. Looked it up. Did doctors say floppy neck/lack of muscle tone is linked to lamotrigine?