Prednisolone in pregnancy

[Moonandstars124]

I’m 23 weeks pregnant and have been taking prednisone for most of my pregnancy due to flare up with my autoimmune condition rheumatoid arthritis I have also been diagnosed with gout this pregnancy which has been extremely painful, I have to other young children and am finding it hard being pregnant and being in a lot of pain and taking care of them, I keep being prescribed the prednisolone and this does help a lot with the pain but worried how it’s affecting the baby as I’ve not been through this before my other 2 pregnancies I didn’t have the flare ups and the gout and when I’ve been looking online about taking steroids while pregnant it says it’s linked to behavioural issues and autism and now I’m really anxious about taking them as I do t want to affect the baby but also do t want to be in lots of pain while trying to look after my other 2 children, has anyone else been in this position and took the steroids though pregnancy and their child has been ok?

I had to take it as I had an autoimmune response to my baby. She is absolutely fine no behavioural issues at all. I couldn't have managed without it though so I had no choice.
You do need to make the labour and delivery team aware as you need to take it regularly and this might not be at the forefront of your mind. I had a section so had to be first on the list. I was then able to taper down after birth. You can breastfeed while taking it.

Thank you for your reply, I’ll be having a section as I’ve had 2 previous sections and also got placenta previa this time! How come you had to be first on the list? X

Hi @Moonandstars124 I've had two ivf pregnancies where I've taken 25mg of pred until 12 weeks in both cases and I've had no issues. I've also taken a short course of pred again recently, I'm 37 weeks and my asthma has been flaring bad, it sorted this out and again so issues. Just bear in mind that when babies are born premature they often give them steroids to mature their lungs. Also your body releases huge amounts of natural steroids whilst pregnant anyway. X