Sertraline during pregnancy - effects after birth

[rollup]

Does anyone have experience with taking Sertraline during pregnancy? I’m in my first trimester and have been advised by my gynae that after birth the baby can suffer withdrawal and can be more irritated/fussy/need closer monitoring and a longer stay.

I’m wondering wether or not to continue taking it. Has anyone safely come off it during pregnancy too?

Grateful for any advice. I take 50mg daily.

I took 50mg sertraline throughout my pregnancy with my youngest. None of the medical professionals were concerned. No issues during or after birth. He’s now a happy healthy 7 year old

hi there,
just to reassure you, i took it with my first as my mental health and anxiety was so bad i had no choice. it basically saved me. My baby was born at 38 weeks, 10,4 pounds and he was absolutely perfect. They did the usual checks, checked how i felt and let us go. he will absolutely fine. took to feeding straight away i didn’t find he had any after effects. he is now a thriving, happy 3 year old. i am
now 24 weeks with my second and have continued all the way again and everything great so far. Your team will obviously be aware of you being on it when you give birth and will obviously observe baby closely. these side affects are possibilities but absolutely not a given as was in my case. i wouldn’t of taken it again if it was such a bad experience last time. my consultant and doctor and midwife and my perinatal mental health team all encouraged me to be on it. i’m also on 50 which i have been told is a relatively low dose and even if i had to go higher i wouldn’t hesistate. i just can’t afford to be that unwell again mentally for my children. seek all the advice and reassurance you can and ultimately do
what you feel is best for you and your baby so you feel at peace with whatever you choose to do. just wanted to share my experience being on it as i know i searched high and low in my first pregnancy for reassurance and peoples experiences. best wishes for whatever you choose xxx

I took it during pregnancy from about 3 months in. I had pre natal depression. I wasn't informed of any side effects for the baby. I wouldn't stop taking it without consulting a medical professional. I wanted to stop taking mine but was advised my health was just as important. We didn't stay in hospital any longer as a result. DC was born via emergency c section in the end and we only stayed a couple of days.

I took it from about 20 weeks. No issues and baby is a healthy 1.5yr old now 😊

I wasn't on sertraline but was on a different medication that has the same risk post birth.
About 1 in 10 babies after birth struggle initially with being out of the womb- this is babies not exposed to medication in utero. This is called poor neonatal adaptation syndrome. If you have been on certain medication in pregnancy this happens to slightly higher proportion of babies. The medication I'm on has a 3 in 10 risk of this happening, I'm not sure what the risk is for sertraline but I think it's somewhere between this and the levels for unmedicated babies.
After my daughter was born we were kept on the maternity ward for 72h and every 4h they came and did some observations looking at her temperature, breathing and oxygen saturation plus a few other things. My daughter passed every one with a perfect score of 0 and we were able to go home.
I'm pregnant again and on the same medication and this will happen again.

There is now quite a clear list of mental health medication which fall into the category that a mentally healthy medicated mother is better than a mentally unwell unmedicated mother.

Thank you all for the advice. Has there been any impact with breastfeeding on Sertraline, any experienced welcome

I took 200mg throughout pregnancy. No issues at all. I had an ELCS and we were out 24 hours later. I only BF for a few days but that was nothing to do with sertraline and more that I hated it.

I breastfeed on sertraline without issues.

breastfed without issues over here too xx