Hello I have recently had an official diagnosis with Epilepsy after a 10 month wait. It says focal epilepsy on my paper work as well front temporal lope sezuires. Its not genetic , it is due to a traumatic head injury. I had a baby in September 2019, everything was fine then but in the past year I started having small absent sezuires that started to get more frequent until it became everyday and then I had a tonic clonic sezuire in February and then another last month. I have been put on medication and my neurologist has said that when I want another baby there is a risk that it could harm the baby but he says he really recommends I stay on them even if I was to get pregnant because if I don't take it the sezuires could harm the baby. So either way there is a risk but I really want another child. At the same time I don't want to cause any harm to the unborn child so I'm torn morally. Is anyone out there with the same or similar type of epilepsy that went on to have healthy and unharmed babies?? Or is there anyone that decided not have one or anymore children because of it?? Its make me so upset, I feel like a choice has been taken from me.
#epilepsy #pregnancy #morals #baby #mother
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bethk123
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It really sounds as though you’ve had a lot to take in and you must be worried about making the right decisions for you and your family.
We talk to women who have positive experiences of pregnancy while taking epilepsy medicines. But we know there are risks. We’ve some information on our website which puts together what we know about epilepsy medicines and risk:
The risks are different with different medicines so depending on which epilepsy medicine you take this might be something you could talk through with your consultant.
There are a couple of other links here you may find useful.
This is all our information about pregnancy and epilepsy:
It can be really helpful to talk to people about their experiences so I hope you hear from others here. We have some other online services you might find useful as well:
You’d be welcome to call us at the Helpline if you think we can help with any questions you might have. Our Helpline number is 0808 8005050 and its confidential and free to phone:
Hi. I had my one and only son 17 years ago. Before I became pregnant I went to see the neurologist as I was taking Tegretol and Epilim, I was weaned off the Epilim as this can be very dangerous to an unborn baby Tegretol is okay to stay on. I took Tegretol throughout my pregnancy the only things I had was extra folic acid at the start and I had a few more scans than the average lady. I had a natural birth and all was well with my son apart from him being extra sleepy for the first year but the health visitors didn’t seem overly concerned. I wish you the best. What medication have they put you on? I have right temporal lobe epilepsy I was born with a cyst on my right temporal lobe but I have now gone 19 years without a seizure but remain on Tegretol because we know the reason.
Hi don’t worry there is lots of support for you out there!! Is it epilim (sodium valproate?) I have tried several medications and it’s unfortunately the only one that works for me. I have been on it through 2 pregnancies and have two healthy boys.
I would say that if you are considering another pregnancy, make sure you speak to a neurologist about it. Lots of bigger hospitals also have joint neurological and obstetrics clinics where you can see a neurologist and obstetrician together to help you plan a pregnancy with epilepsy. They will probably help you try out a few different meds. I ended up having to take half my normal dose of Epilim so I had a few seizures but overall not many and like I said my babies were healthy. I felt very supported all the way through, extra scans, etc. Happy to talk to you more about it if you want
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