Worried about giving birth when husband has epilepsy!

[jemma1509]

Hello

My husband has epilepsy and this is managed very well with eplim each day. However, he must have a good night sleep or a good 8-10 hours sleep to function without risk or feeling there's a risk of a seizure.

I just wanted to see if there are any other women that have given birth with their husband in the room who has epilepsy, did the hospital make special arrangements for you?

I'm only giving birth next year but with coronavirus I'm worried I'll still only be allowed 1 birthing partner and I don't want him to miss out or put himself at risk if I go into labour in the middle of the night or even stay in labour all day and night and give birth when he's asleep. I know baby will come when baby wants, I just want to see if anyone has gone through this and how you got on?

Thanks so much!

Hi

I was in the exact same situation and gave birth 3 months ago. We were very fortunate to have a quick birth around 5 hours first contraction till delivery however it started just as we were going to bed and he had to stay with baby for a couple of hours straight away afterwards as I had to go to theatre so it did result in perhaps about 30 hours not sleeping for my partner. In hindsight, the covid rule to not let people stay was good as it forced him home once I headed to the ward, he then took a sleeping pill and caught up on sleep as he had started to develop twitches so he really needed it.

I guess you can only make your midwife etc aware, get him a comfy chair, ear plugs and eye mask maybe and try to get him to get a couple of hours kip when the situation allows. My partner had been to the neurologist before the birth to discuss both birth and lack of sleep with a newborn so they did kind of help him think of a strategy to manage it - predominately get a much sleep when he can and sedative pills to reduce seizure risk and to help him fall and stay asleep.

Best of luck

Hi OP, have you spoken to the hospital about this? My partner doesn't have epilepsy, but he has another condition which means he really needs to get a good night's sleep or he will get very sick which is not what we need with a newborn! I asked the hospital and they said they could make an exception to the one birth partner /no swapping rule so we employed a doula who could take over if my partner needed to go home and rest.

As it happens, very shortly after this was agreed they changed hospital maternity partner policy and are now allowing two partners at the same time which is great (so long as it doesn't get revoked due to the second wave..).

Good luck!