Pregnancy and epilepsy

[Mango401]

Hello, I wondered if anyone could give me some advice.. I'm loosing myself just now through stress and other people's opinions.

My partner and I found out we were pregnant a few months ago. It wasn't planned and we were trying to be as careful as we could. I am epileptic, I was on sodium valporate at the time and quite a high dose which is not recommended for pregnancy due to malformations and conditions.

When I found out and told the doctors etc, everyone was very negative towards me and immediately told me have an abortion, but it's just not in my nature to do so and would destroy me as a person. They scanned me and I was only reading just 5 weeks so they did a quick 24 day changeover to keppra. I'm now on 500mg keppra and 200mg sodium valporate am/pm. To further decrease epilim this week. I've been made to feel like such a monster since finding out, my own mother is not supportive, some health professionals have been so cruel and harsh to me and I feel like I've had no support.

I am absoloutley terrified and feel so alone. My partners amazing and tries to reassure me all the time but I can just feel myself falling into a dark hole. I had a horrific birth with my first son due to having eclampsia and almost died, and I am now terrified of this pregnancy and find myself not being able to enjoy it due to family and health professionals opinions. Some have been incredible and others have just been horrific. I don't know what to do or where to go and who to turn too. I am currently 10 weeks.

I just wondered if anyone had any advice.. I feel completely alone.

[Lovefood1984]

I don’t have any advice but it sounds as if you’re trying to do everything you can to make sure your little one is as ok as possible whilst taking care of yourself, also surely 5 weeks is far too early to tell you to terminate when baby may be fine, surely it’d be better to see how they are doing at 12 weeks when you can see stuff 🤷‍♀️ Like you I’d feel destroyed if I had to do that. Can you get counselling through your midwife? It sounds as if you could do with some help given how bad your last birth went so you can try to enjoy this one as much as possible. Wishing you all the best for your 12 week scan and personally I think you’re doing all the right things for you both xxx

[kroberts9]

You want to be as calm and relaxed as possible for the baby. Stress is bad for the pregnancy. Of course that is easier said than done. Find activities you enjoy to reduce stress. I have epilepsy and was thankful to talk with a nutritionist at the start of my second pregnancy. It would have been nicer to know earlier. Epilepsy medication often decreases the absorption of folic acid, which is necessary for fetal development. Reduction in folic acid will also increase anemia (low iron). You'll need to make sure you have enough Vitamin B complex, folic acid, Vitamin C, and iron. These work together for absorption in the blood stream. (Too low Vitamin C will decrease absorption of Vitamin B and vise versa, which decreases the absorption of iron.) As far as I know this addresses the primary issue in having a healthy pregnancy. Best of luck!