sertralin and pregnancy - advice please!

[Catla]

Has anyone else taken sertralin during pregnancy?? I have suffered badly from PND since giving birth to DD. Found out I was pregnant again in November (despite being on the pill!) so I immediately stopped taking the tablet though I had recently had the prescription increased. I have dipped massively and it's putting massive strain on our marriage but from what I've read on the internet there's no guarantee that the medication won't affect the baby... I did take the meds whilst breastfeeding on recommendation of doctor. I have recently been referred to psychiatrist who strongly recommends I start taking a low dose again but I know I would never forgive myself if I damaged this litte one in anyway... anyone got any advice/experience in this??

Hi, I was on Lustral for depression, only a low dose until I was about 6 month pg. I was advised to stop taking it by the mh nurse(i don't think I really needed it anymore but was scared to stop just in case) so I did.
Anyway my DS was born healthy at 9lbs 2oz, no probs.
You really need to get advice from your doc on this though because if you still need it then it's better for you to take it. Being depressed is certainly not good for you or others around you.
HTH

It is very difficult this one because no one likes to say a drug is "safe" in pregnancy just in case. They cannot, for obvious reasons, do any studies or tests on drugs in pregnant women, so they can only look at "environmental research" i.e. where a woman has got pregnant whilst taking a drug.
I have heard that sertraline is one of the ones considered more safe.
The difficult thing is that abnormalities occur naturally in a certain percentage of all births, so if something terrible does happen when you take a drug during pregnancy it may not necessarily be due to the drug anyway.
I think if you are feeling that bad that it is seriously affecting your quality of life and that of your family you should consider going back on it. Especially so if you are past the first trimester.