Driving after eclamptic fit

[ninjaturtlesmum]

Hi, I'm just after a bit of advice really. I had my third baby - a daughter 9 days ago. During labour I had an eclamptic fit. I was given magnesium sulphate following this and discharged from hospital after 3 days later. I am now wondering about driving. DH rang DVLA who asked us to fill a form in but go on advice of Doctor. Went to see a gp yesterday for DD as she has an umbilical cord infection and asked about the driving. GP said she wasn't sure but said with other seizures it is 6 months before being allowed to drive again. Needless to say we were shocked and now am quite worried as DH will go back to work in a few weeks and I will need to take DS1 and DS2 to school and back.

Any advice or experience gratefully received, thank you.

Going from near the bottom of the dvla guidance, it looks like if you can get the GP to state it was a provoked seizure, and not going to happen again you are likely to be Ok to drive.

Congrats of your new baby, and hope you are successful with GP/DVLA.

Thank you for your reply and for the link. Will have to print it out and take to the GP. She wasn't sure at all and did admit that.

Did you hear back from them? I had a seizure in pregnancy but with no diagnosed cause so am not allowed to drive at the moment. I had to give license up for 6 months.

Hi Monkey

Thanks for your reply. That is what I am afraid of. The consultant is dragging her feet and won't give me a definitive answer. We have had a phone call from her PA today and she has sent a letter to the GP saying I am low risk but cannot confirm it was eclampsia (although it was during delivery). I now have to go and see the GP (same one who did not have a clue about eclampsia). Am going to take the information about the provoked seizures to her.

Hi there I know this is a very old thread but I am in this exact same position right now and currently trying to get the dvla to change their minds, what happened with you in the end?

I've sent you a message Nattygilly but I'll update what happened for anyone else unfortunately going through this in the future. I had the fit during labour and it was treated as an eclamptic fit. The DVLA wrote to the hospital consultant who advised that I would be safe to drive from 6 weeks post natal as my risk of further seizure was ‘near neglible’ due to it being eclampsia. I had a debrief with the hospital 4 weeks after the birth and they included in my notes about advice re: driving and gave me a copy of this for my records. The DVLA were happy with this and I was able to start driving again when they advised. Hope this helps.