Citalopram and extended stay

Screwballs · 2023-10-12T09:03:04+00:00

Can anyone give me any advise on the above? Had my first midwife appt and she has told me I'll be kept in 48-72 hours to keep an eye on the baby due to withdrawals, its really made me uncomfortable. Of course I want the best for the baby, but its making me feel like some sort of addict? They dont want me to stop the ADs and, frankly, nor do I at this point, but also I dont want to be forced to stay in a hospital for 3 days unable to sleep on a ward after child birth. Can anyone offer* any experience?

Original poster

Screwballs · 12/10/2023 11:34

Anyone?

OP posts:

vickyjanee · 12/10/2023 14:50

Hey, I only have experience with epilepsy medication but didn't need this, was just told to keep an eye on her in case she was hard to wake. I would imagine if you're fine taking the medication during pregnancy then baby should be fine as well, so little should be pass through to them.

Original poster

Screwballs · 12/10/2023 15:50

Thank you x

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Greybeardy · 12/10/2023 16:06

You’re better off taking advice from your own team than from strangers on the internet who’s experience is with other drug groups! It sounds like you’ve had fairly standard advice from your team - babies do need monitoring in the immediate postnatal period if you’ve taken an SSRI (and it usually is the right thing to stay on the ssri if it’s working for you). It has nothing to do with judgement or addiction - it’s more to do with making sure your baby doesn’t develop hypoglycaemia and monitoring for some other features.

Original poster

Screwballs · 12/10/2023 16:15

Greybeardy · 12/10/2023 16:06

You’re better off taking advice from your own team than from strangers on the internet who’s experience is with other drug groups! It sounds like you’ve had fairly standard advice from your team - babies do need monitoring in the immediate postnatal period if you’ve taken an SSRI (and it usually is the right thing to stay on the ssri if it’s working for you). It has nothing to do with judgement or addiction - it’s more to do with making sure your baby doesn’t develop hypoglycaemia and monitoring for some other features.

Im not seeking medical advice over my own Midwife. I was asking others experience, i.e. did other on AD's have a 2-3 day stay in hospital, if so, where they in their own room etc. Do you have any helpful input on the matter?

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wp65 · 12/10/2023 16:20

Hi OP, I was in the same position. It wasn't a big deal. My baby had a bit of extra monitoring in the 24 hours after she was born (just had a midwife check her vitals a bit more frequently), but that could also be because of her low birthweight (an unrelated issue with the placenta). They seemed happy to let us go home after 24 hours, though in the event we ended up staying 48 hours so they could do an ultrasound (again, unrelated to citalopram - she was born with a sacral dimple, and they wanted to rule out spina bifida).

So all in all, nothing to worry about, it was all super chill. No one thought the citalopram was a big deal, and all the medics were relaxed about the possibility of withdrawal. I think it's an abundance of caution more than anything else.

wp65 · 12/10/2023 16:21

P.s. she's now an energetic and thriving two year old!

wp65 · 12/10/2023 16:23

Should add that the amount of time they want you to stay will probably vary from trust to trust. And also, I totally appreciate your horror at the prospect of staying three nights in the postnatal ward. Two nights was pretty awful for me, to be honest. can you ask your midwife about the possibility of a private room? I was told afterwards that I would have been given priority for a private room due to depression/ anxiety. Wish I'd bloody known that at the time! Plus in some trusts you can pay for a private room, if you can afford it.

Original poster

Screwballs · 12/10/2023 16:30

wp65 · 12/10/2023 16:23

Should add that the amount of time they want you to stay will probably vary from trust to trust. And also, I totally appreciate your horror at the prospect of staying three nights in the postnatal ward. Two nights was pretty awful for me, to be honest. can you ask your midwife about the possibility of a private room? I was told afterwards that I would have been given priority for a private room due to depression/ anxiety. Wish I'd bloody known that at the time! Plus in some trusts you can pay for a private room, if you can afford it.

She did suggest that I wouldnt be on a ward but admittedly thats where I internally scoffed, with the state of the NHS I cant imagine for a second having a lovely separate private room and absolutely will not be banking on it!

Thats all really helpful, thank you, I am sure that in reality they will just want me out to free up space, it just spooked me a little. Also that I really would hate to have to explain to anyone family wise etc why I couldnt just come home!

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mynameiscalypso · 12/10/2023 16:33

It might be worth chatting to the perinatal mental health team. I was on sertraline during pregnancy and the perinatal consultant was insistent that I spend as little time in hospital as needed and had an accelerated discharge because of the risk to my mental health of staying in. I had a ELCS but left just over 24 hours later. DS had frequent obs in the first few hours but that was due to his low apgar score at birth (which I was assured was nothing to do with the sertraline).