M.E in pregnancy

[PunkWookiee]

Hello all.

My girlfriend is 33 weeks pregnant and very close to getting a diagnosis for M.E/CFS.

I am not just her partner and the father of the child. But I am her carer too.

Does anyone here have any experience with M.E/CFS in pregnancy?

Any help or insight would be great as even the professionals don't know a lot about the two together.

Thank you all.

Steve

[Aloysia]

I was diagnosed with CFS in my early twenties. I mostly got by at 80-95% energy. With one round of short term disability around 30 years old. I had my kids at ages 40 and 41. My experiences being pregnant were that my CFS didn't bother me much at all. It could be because autoimmune responses are typically diminished during pregnancy in order to protect the baby. Or maybe I just got lucky. However, I had a rough time postpartum in term of energy. I had planned on taking as much leave as possible due to the CFS (just in case) and I definitely needed it and could have used more. I was able to return to work full time after my first child and things seemed ok. I had my second child 16.5 months after my first. I was able to return to work full time. But then proceeded to slowly go downhill energy wise. The combination of a very demanding job (that suddenly ramped up to impossible due to a change in manager) and having 2 small kids at home caused me to slowly spiral. When my 2nd child was 6 months old, it was clear that I was struggling. By the time my 2nd child was 14 months old, I had to go out on short term disability. Which led to long-term disability. My ability to recover (like I had done previously) was severely impacted. My 2nd child is now 9 years old and I am still disabled. I'm sure some of this also had to do with my age (now 51). It's hard enough having kids at 40 and recovering. Adding CFS to the mix just made things significantly worse. I wish you and your girlfriend the best. I'm sending good thoughts your way.