Extra monitoring after birth due to Sertraline?

[YourCoralPoster]

Hi,

I've just had a midwife appointment at 34 weeks and was told that due to me taking Sertraline, I'll have to stay in hospital for at least 48 hours after birth so that baby can be monitored.

This is the first I've heard of this and I'm a little upset.

I've had a Google and a look at other posts/forums, and in most cases it seems that women either weren't asked to stay at all or were asked to stay for 24 hours. 48 hours seems a little excessive to me!

I'm only taking 25mg, which is a tiny dose, the lowest dose you can take actually, and I'm really disappointed because my mental health has actually been fine and I only continued taking it as I was advised to at the beginning of my pregnancy!

Now I feel like I'm being punished for it.

It's also making me a little uncomfortable that my last few midwife appointments have been with "safeguarding" midwives. I've had no issues with my anxiety at all in this pregnancy and had only started the Sertraline after a miscarriage and ectopic last year. It makes me uncomfortable to know I'm being "safeguarded." 😥

Has anyone else had a similar experience or been asked to stay for baby monitoring after birth because of Sertraline use?

And also, if I stop it now, do you think I'll still have to stay for extra monitoring of the baby?

Hi, yes I had stay to in extra with both of my children. Nothing mentioned about safeguarding though.

I suppose you will just have to stay for the full 48 hours really, even if it is a bit excessive. Can you put a positive spin on it and look at it as a good rest for 48 hours after giving birth and before going home.

The only other thing you can do is discharge yourself earlier but that will probably just cause other problems.

"And also, if I stop it now, do you think I'll still have to stay for extra monitoring of the baby?"

Probably will still have to stay as sertraline can stay in your system for up to 3 months

I took sertraline throughout my last pregnancy. Didn’t even give birth in hospital never mind keep baby in for 48 hours!

My trust do this. It’s to ensure your baby doesn’t have withdrawal symptoms from your sertraline and if they do, that they are monitored.

It is nothing to worry about and whilst a bit annoying, the safest thing to do for your baby.

with regards to safeguarding, taking sertraline in itself is not a safeguarding concern.

I was told I needed to stay 48hrs just in case baby had any withdrawal symptoms, once he was born I was discharged 24hrs to the hour after his birth as he was fine! I was grateful for the 24hr stay as it gave me a chance to recover a bit before getting home to DD.
wishing you the best of luck with your birth

I wasn’t told this until after delivery, and I was so angry about it. I was fine, baby was fine and we were struggling to get any sleep and breastfeeding established on the horrible ward. I’d BF my first until 2YO so I knew I needed to be at home, relaxed and to get some decent rest in order to get things going. I discharged myself and my baby after 24 hours 🤷‍♀️ never heard a peep about it from anyone.

I'm on a different anti depressant and wasn't told anything like this. 25mg is such a low dose, didn't even know it existed for setraline

I have just had my daughter on other medication that has similar risks. They were suggesting 72h for my drug as it was one they don't see as often. I had to stay in for 72h with my daughter on this medication. This time around I was cleared by paeds to be discharged at 48h as long as the midwives were happy. They said they usually keep babies exposed to sertraline for 24-48h but as they are less experienced with my drug they preferred 72h but then said if they were going to struggle its likely to be after 72h so there wasn't much difference between going home at 48 Vs 72h. I was given a list of symptoms to look out for, and which required contact with midwives, triage or 999.
My son struggled with maintaining blood sugars during the first day but was fine on the second day and we were discharged at 48h exactly. He had passed every assessment done every 4h for withdrawal/poor neonatal adaptation syndrome.
Due to my risk of getting unwell postnatally due to lack of sleep my obstetrician and psychiatrist put in my birth plan that if possible I needed an individual room and after both births they were able to accommodate this and that helped make the stay less disruptive

My local trusts policy is babies need to be monitored for at least 72 hours.
Nobody told me this at any of my midwife appointments I expected to be out the following day. We was given a private room for the 72 hours.

I’m on a different medication but was told from the off I’d need to be in for 48 hours monitoring. As it turned out I had an emergency section and needed IV antibiotics for 48 hours too so wasn’t the end of the world. Like you I was only on a small amount but baby did have a slight arm twitch for a couple of days due to withdrawal

SSRIs can cause withdrawal and respiratory distress in the neonate. That's why they advise monitoring. You should be told that in the antenatal period or preferably, before you conceive. Some people choose to come off of the SSRIs before conception.

So weird isn't it. I'm on 100mg of sertraline and was out in less than 24 hours with my recent baby. To be fair the wards were awful and hot (June this year) and I was threatened by a lovely couple when I asked them not to play music on their phones so I think they felt sorry for me. The HV is around loads in the first few days anyway I feel like this can be monitored from home. Big shared maternity wards often with offensive and/ or loud men are not a good place for anyone's mental health.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

Interesting to hear about everyone’s experiences/how different trusts operate.

I guess I’ll just have to go with it and see what happens. 🫣

As long as baby’s healthy, that’s all that matters.

Just had my little girl 💓
I was high risk due to other medical conditions but I take both sertraline and quetapine (anti psychotic) and even with all of this medical history I stayed in for 24 hrs.
I have bipolar, anxiety and depression.

No one ever mentioned having to stay longer due to meds.

you need to quiz them as to why you are expected to stay in longer and why you’re speaking with the safeguarding team.

Ps the worst part of having a baby for me was the bloody 24 hr stay in hospital. Was on a noisy ward with lots of partners coming and going. Didn’t get any sleep.
so for your mental health surely it’s better to be in your own house and bed!

i was discharged 4 hours after giving birth never mentioned as a concern

I was encouraged to stay in hospital longer with dc2 than with dc1. It was on my notes that I had had PND and had been medicated for it. TBH I was very glad to stay in. It gave me a pause with no extra responsibilities - just me and my new baby. Dh and dc1 came and visited, I had cuddles and love, and peace and quiet. I also was lucky enough to be moved from the main PN ward to a private room in the ward. I stayed for three nights, and they were happy for me to stay longer, had I felt the need.

I felt supported, not judged; checked-in-on, not supervised.