Anxious about Epilepsy during pregnancy

[Nuttypea]

Hi, I'm new to mumsnet and have been ttc baby no. 1. Are there any mummas out there with epilepsy, who breezed through pregnancy without it having an effect on your seizures?

I have been seizure free for almost 7 years now, but am terrified of them returning, however I am longing to have a baby.

Thanks all 😘

Hi, I've been seizure free for over 10 years and was also worried about this prior to having my children. I was heavily monitored during pregnancy, extra scans, blood tests to check medication levels (which were increased) and several appointments with consultants and epilepsy nurse. I didn't experience any problems during pregnancy. I had to give birth in the delivery unit rather than midwife led unit as had to be near DRs just in case but to be honest once I was in labour I didn't care where I was!
It was more the post natal time I was anxious about - sleep deprivation could have triggered a seizure. I waited until the sleepless newborn phase was over before reducing my dose.
Have you been advised to take extra folic acid? I had to 3 months before TTC until 12 week scan.

Hope that helps. Overall a positive experience and I felt well looked after.

Thank you so much for replying! That has filled me with some hope! Congratulations on your new addition!
Do you mind if I ask, did you have to change your medication altogether, or just the dose? I currently take 100mg lamotrigine twice a day and my Dr did explain that I would potentially have to increase this in the 2nd trimester.

Thanks for the heads up, but yes been taking 5mg folic acid daily for the good part of a year now! Sorry for 78 questions... Even though its been 7 years, I still have a lot of anxiety around my seizures. Quite ridiculous really, should be counting my blessings that they are under control! And thanks again for replying xxx

I was on (and back now on) 100mg lamotrigine twice a day. This increased to 125mg in 2nd trimester and then 150mg in 3rd trimester. For my first baby I was told to start reducing my dose the day I gave birth but i found that really increased my anxiety as I knew being sleep deprived was more likely to trigger. So second time round I told my epilepsy nurse I wasn't going to reduce the dose for a few weeks and she was fine with that! X

I’m on 200mg morning and 225mg night. My epilepsy nurse kept a close eye on me but I was fortunate enough not to have any seizures during my pregnancy or after the birth although they did increase my medication to 225mg morning and 250mg night when my then husband noticed me starting to twitch a lot more in my sleep.

The hospital also wanted to check with my epilepsy nurse before discharge so I stayed a bit longer in hospital to make sure I was seizure free but both me and baby were fine.

If you want to TTC it’s best to be on folic acid 3 months before you start trying and I was on 5mg a day due to the medication