I have had 3 children. All 3 pregnacies were different.

  During the first, I had absolutly no problems at all. My ob took many precautions. I was on semi-bedrest for the last 2 months. The second was a little harder and I did have some seizures, but they weren't too bad. For this birth, I did not have an epidural, unlike the other two.

  My third was the worst. I had more seizures than ever before. I even ended up in the hospital in and out of a coma. I went into status-epileptus. The doctors did not think I would make it through the night. I din't keep up with my ep.dr. like I should've. She didn't seem to care  and did not think that the pregnancy was a big deal. Needless to say, the hospital gave me a different dr.  If I would've had a different ep.dr., this might not of happened. 

  All three births were normal w/o any complications due to the epilepsy.

  As long as you keep in touch with your drs. everything should be fine. Make sure your dr. knows that you are high risk and that special precautions need to be taken.  I had to see my ob. more often than what you would if you didn't have seizures and take extra vitamens. Folic acid is a big one. I did not get taken off of any of my meds. Except for my third kid, all are normal. The last might have epilepsy though and my other two were tested and all seems to be normal.

 Good luck.

Hi there, new to the site.  I have had two children , both while on Tegretol XR and had no problems.  I was diagnosed at 18 and was very worried while pregnant.  I was on a high dose of folic acid, and considered a high risk pregnancy because of my epilepsy.  I nursed both of my boys for two years each and both are very healthy and advanced.  My triggers are sleep deprivation and stress, which i thought would make being pregnant impossible, but was lucky to never have any problems.  My second labor was very stressful, and i was able to make it thru without any seizure activity.  It seems the biggest stress in my life never causes the problems, just the little irritating every day stress!!  Who knows, but good luck on your pregnancy!

i was (and still am) 400mg of lamictal during both of my pregnancies. both were delived c-section. and seizure free. i had to have my ovary removed with my daughter's birth so i had general. which i wouldn't recommend. they woke me up before administering pain meds... not sure if that is standard or what, but it was not fun.

when my son was born i had an epidural c-section and it was much easier.

i remained seizure free during both very high stress pregnanies. however i only experienced the beginning of labor, as i had scheduled c-sections...

i also breastfeed both kids for a combined 2 and 1/2 years without incident. i have read elsewhere that some women have had milk supply issues, but not me.

prior to getting pregnant i was living without meds, having only one or two grand mals a year, but my doctor flat out told me that having a seizure puts me and my baby at more risk than that of taking the meds.

so i started taking the meds and have not had a grand mal since february 2003.

life on meds is rough, but it is better than having grand mals even once a year. my chilren have suffered no side effects from their exposure to my meds.

good luck to you all!

kat

Hi,

I am new to this forum, but not to epilepsy, I was diagnosed at 13 after having seizures for a year, I am 31 now and have a great career as a registered nurse, a wonderful husband, but more importantly a beautiful, healthy 13 month old little boy!!!  The experience was beautiful, i never had a seizure at all during the pregnancy, was unable to have pain meds or epidural (but was encouraged to have epidural by doctor to keep stress levels low) because he came so quickly, thank goodness!!! I take tegretol extended release and have been medication controlled for almost four years, I have just about every type of seizure, petit mal, grand mal, focal, so on and so forth.  I was unable to quit taking my medication, because without it, I would seize. My neurologist put me on 4 mg of folic acid because epilepsy meds increase the risk of neural tube defects and the simplest fix is folic acid.  Now i have a wonderful little boy who functions on a 18 month old level according to the pediatrician and so far no signs of epilepsy. But if your seizures are not very bad and you know the trigger just do everything in your power to avoid it, get plenty of rest, and enjoy the pregnancy, i loved it soooo much and want to do it again, my fear is gone, god saw me through the first and he will see me through another, good luck to you!!!