Sertraline and pregnancy

[emfrancx]

I am currently on 50mg sertraline for anxiety, it has been amazing for me and has pretty much changed my life.
DH and I are planning on trying for baby no. 2 in the next few months but I know that being on Sertraline can have some negative effects on baby. NHS says you can take it while pregnant but I am still nervous about it. I have previously tried to wean myself off Sertraline in preparation for pregnancy but I do become an anxious mess when I get to 3+ days without it and DH feels that it would be more detrimental to myself and baby for me to be off it rather than on it.
My question is, has anyone here ever taken Sertraline while pregnant and what was the outcome? I am planning on booking an appointment with my GP to discuss it but would like to hear others experiences as well.

My experience is that it was a lifesaver for me when I had to go on it in the second trimester of my second pregnancy and there were no negative consequences for either me or my baby.

I was on citalopram for several years before weaning myself off very slowly for baby no.1. But my second pregnancy coincided with the pandemic in 2020, which meant that by the time I was about 5 months pregnant we were in the first full lockdown. At the time we were in a two bed flat in London with no garden and DD1 was about 20 months old and obviously couldn’t go to nursery. And back then so little was known about the virus that I couldn’t rule out my pregnancy being at risk. So my mental health went off a cliff and my doctor suggested I try sertraline. I am so so glad I did. It lifted me out of a hole at the time and my son was born full term, just under 8lbs and perfectly healthy.

If you need it you need it would be my advice.

Sorry but I don't think you should have another baby at the moment. You will get anxious taking it and anxious if you don't. Invest in some counselling first. Babies put a huge strain on relationships and mental health.

Don’t listen to this comment, being anxious is just the way some people are (me included) and should never prevent you from having a baby despite people that may judge when it comes to mental health, we can still be good mums!! From my experience I have found that sertraline and citalopram are perfectly safe to take although some doctors will recommend citalopram ovee sertraline. My GP told me it would cause miscarriage, low birth weight and all of this other scary stuff and since then I’ve asked and had 3 midwives tell me it’s not scientifically true at all and it is safe to take. I have also been referred to the MINT clinic where a counsellor has also told me the same thing and that mums taking antidepressants is so common and not taking them cause cause more risk than actually taking them (post natal depression etc). Of course there are some low risks of bleeding after birth but they can do things to help this.

I’m on 100mg of sertraline and 10 weeks pregnant. The doctor said the benefits outweigh the risks and I was happy to carry on

Thank you for your replies. I am just an anxious person in general, overthinking every little thing and my mind takes one thought and it just snowballs out of control. Sertraline has taken this away and I am able to think more clearly and sensibly. I was originally prescribed it for PND but discovered that I may have needed it for a long time even before getting pregnant!
It’s good to hear some positivity around it re pregnancy because it has honestly been a game changer for me and my only regret is that I didn’t go on it sooner!

Some medication increases the risk of poor neonatal adaptation syndrome, this occurs with 1 in 10 births and some medications increase the risk a little. This is where baby might struggle to adjust to life outside the womb in the first few days - struggling to regulate their temperature for example. I'm not on sertraline but another medication (quetiapine) that also has this risk. When my daughter was born this meant we had a 3 days stay after she was born and every 4h they checked her temperature, O2 levels and a few other things. My daughter scored a perfect 0 on every assessment and we got to go home.
Because of my medication I'm consultant led, I'm pregnant again and I am expecting the same again. My medication increases my risk of all forms of diabetes so this time around I'm getting a glucose tolerance test and extra scans in the third trimester. I didn't get these with my first but it was 2020 and I've also changed teams so both might explain the differences.
A healthy medicated mum is better than an unwell unmedicated mum is what I've always been told.