Bipolar and pregnancy

[livingzuid]

Hi all am currently 12 weeks pg with first after a mc in Feb this year. I am finding I am becoming increasingly bipolar-y for want of a better expression which is making me sad. I have had a year or so of being pretty stable after an epic mania then crash and ended up in hospital. I am on 600mg of lithium and am getting very paranoid again with suicidal thoughts which are not welcome. I have been referred to specialist perinatal psychiatric care and am seeing them again next week. I just wanted to know how people coped being bipolar and pregnant? I have massive paranoid thoughts about the pregnancy itself as well after a terrible 7 week scan by someone who didn't understand my condition at all. I ended up hallucinating at night and my husband had to stop me from hurting myself. Been better since then but any advice would be welcome :) I can find so little in terms of advice and support. Thank you.

I found the specialist perinatal psychiatric care very good. Much better than the CMHT. I was depressed during pregnancy but with the help of the perinatal people I got through :). Hopefully you will get good care and your pregnancy goes fine. I found that my bipolar symptoms started to disappear the further I got with my pregnancy.

Unfortunately where I live the perinatal care only deals with pregnant women or just after giving birth. In my case things went pear shaped when baby was three months old and I had to deal things pretty much by myself. This lead to hospital admission in the end.

Hi - quick message, something like 95% of bipolar mothers are stable in pregnancy because the pregnancy hormones act in a stabilising way similar to the neuromechanisms of bipolar medications. My perinatal pdoc specialised in bipolar women.

My perinatal team can emit you to the ward up to 1 year after birth, I was discharged into the CMHT at 18months post natal.

Just read you are still on lithium - I came off for pregnancy. I think with you not coming off lithium you stand a very good chance at remaining well, as the 95% statistic is for bipolar mothers off medication.

www.app-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/bipolar_uk_bipolar_disorder_pregnancy_childbirth.pdf

Hi thank you all for the replies I will look at the thread. I've had such bad ms that I haven't had too much time to feel paranoid recently! I didn't want to take the lithium but by the time we found out the psychiatrist said it wouldn't make any difference and it was far more beneficial to stay on it. I had to spread out the tablets to 3 times a day rather than all at night as it was making me so sick again, but all good apart from that.

I live in the Netherlands and I see what is the equivalent of my community team and psychiatrist alongside my perinatal psychiatrist but all the medication is done by the hospital team. Lots of appointments! The perinatal team have postnatal groups for mums and babies and I can still access support for a while. And I will get a private room during the birth and after - trying to make the most of the few perks :)

Feel a bit better about it all thank you ladies.

Hi thank you all for the replies I will look at the thread. I've had such bad ms that I haven't had too much time to feel paranoid recently! I didn't want to take the lithium but by the time we found out the psychiatrist said it wouldn't make any difference and it was far more beneficial to stay on it. I had to spread out the tablets to 3 times a day rather than all at night as it was making me so sick again, but all good apart from that.

I live in the Netherlands and I see what is the equivalent of my community team and psychiatrist alongside my perinatal psychiatrist but all the medication is done by the hospital team. Lots of appointments! The perinatal team have postnatal groups for mums and babies and I can still access support for a while. And I will get a private room during the birth and after - trying to make the most of the few perks :)

Feel a bit better about it all thank you ladies.

Sorry double post :(

Hello, sorry if I repeat any of what anyone above says I haven't read all the thread.

I am bipolar but was only diagnosed in the last year but I had a long history of clinical depression going back to my teens. When I was pregnant I was referred to a perinatal psych which was really helpful. Fortunately for me I was the most stable I have ever been through both of my pregnancies. The first 12 weeks of my first pregnancy I wasn't but that was because I had a mc previously so I was worried it would happen again, however like I said the rest was plain sailing.

Hope things improve for you, x

june thank you :) I am wobbly because of a mc really. I have noticed because I am so tired it affects my mood and at night those pesky racing thoughts come back. But aside from my 7 week blip so far so good. I have seen the perinatal peeps already and the gynaecologists didn't want to see me till 13 weeks so I am taking that as a positive! This time next week I will know....

Thanks once again.

Hope all goes well for you next week

I think anyone who had mc before is bound to feel apprehensive and worried about any future pregnancies, however when you have a mental illness of course you panic as the symptoms can be similar to how you feel when the illness is kicking in. You question yourself more, is it right to feel this way, am I getting ill again etc.. Then of course you have the worries about meds etc..

You are receiving all the correct care and are in safe hands by the sounds of it, I really wish you well and I'm sure you will be.

I'm in a similarish (that's not even a word lol) sort of situation at the moment. My younger sister committed suicide almost 4 weeks ago now and I'm in absolute bits, all the symptoms I'm having are all so similar to how I feel when I'm going down, however my psych has assured me it is grief I am experiencing. Obviously I know I am grieving but I'm also panicking, getting racing thoughts and anxiety, sleeps all to cock even though I'm on a high dosage of sleepers that I feel like I'm really going nuts! My psych and cpn are keeping a close eye on me which is reassuring.

I hope I haven't upset you by telling you this and I don't mean to hijack your thread but I thought it may help you make sense that how you are reacting is normal to your situation (whatever normal maybe?!)

I wish you all the best with your health and pregnancy, Juney, xxxx

juney I'm so sorry about your sister :( are you bearing up OK?

Too busy battling ms to feel much else I have the severe for. Which isn't a bad thing though as no time to feel stressed over anything else! I know what you mean about symptoms though. I find I recover faster which is good when I get them.

I hope you are OK too.

I don't know how I'm doing if I'm honest, too sleep deprived to even think straight!

Yuk ms poor you, hope that soon passes, I think mine went around the 14 week mark with both of mine, then the heartburn kicked in lol!

I was on lithium until about week 10, as I found out I was pg at 7 weeks, because of that I was closely monitored by the Fetal medical team (or whatever they're called!) because of the risk of Epsteins anomaly. I had scans of the baby and 3d scans every 8 -12 weeks to check baby's heart.