Amitriptyline in pregnancy - will baby have withdrawal?

[lillamyy1]

I'm on 50mg as prescribed by my doc when I was about 20 weeks (had been on citalopram before TTC but it didn't suit). I didn't want to take anything while pg but was getting so depressed and anxious that I decided it would probably be less harmful to the baby to be on ADs than to be stressed all the time.
The amitriptyline is helping massively with my anxiety/stress, but none of my docs have given me an idea of what withdrawal symptoms my baby might have when he's born and if he'll need extra monitoring etc. I'm 34 weeks now and getting worried, as I've read that some babies can be shaky and distressed after birth if their mothers took amitriptyline while pg.
Has anybody had a baby while taking amitriptyline?

Hi there, I did. I took 150mg throughout my pregnancy with DS, who's now at infant school and doing just fine!

In terms of impact on the baby, when I had DS five years ago, the NICE guidance said that babies whose mums had been taking ADs should be observed for 24h after the birth.

While I'm not an expert on newborns, DS didn't seem especially shaky and distressed. He did go on to get an infection and quite bad jaundice in his first week. However, I think the first had much more to do with the fact that he was born a good while after my waters broke, and that's a known infection risk. The jaundice I think was just one of those things that happens to babies, made worse by the fact that both the infection and the jaundice made him sleepy and not want to take in much milk (which is what they need to clear the jaundice). Antibiotics sorted out the infection, UV therapy sorted out the jaundice. Once he got the hand of feeding, he was unstoppable!

The one thing I did do was get an appointment to see the obstetric anaesthetist (suggested by my community-based MH midwife) so that my notes had clear guidance on which drugs I should and shouldn't be offered in labour (pethedine + amitriptilene = not great) - it wasn't a debate I fancied having while in the middle of a contraction!

That's really helpful, thank you so much I'll speak to my midwife because I didn't think about how it might affect taking pain relief in labour and was planning on diamorphine if I couldn't manage.