I was in the pregnancy registry study and read the results when they were published. The way I read the results was that there was a higher association with cleft palate with lamictal, not huge but statistically significant.

Ultimately it is up to you. Cleft palate is a manageable birth defect. My daughter being born somewhat sleepy, hard to feed, and slow to regain birth weight - was hard for me not to blame on the drugs and brought on the guilt big time.

On hindsight seven years later I see that there's no clear causation between drugs and early weight gain problems with my child. Even if there were drug related issues, they did not have any impact beyond toddler hood.

Of course those of us with issues with guilt and self worth (ie: everyone with bipolar) might find the early childhood years can be extremely challenging. Imagine thinking that any relatively common childhood problem is linked to your condition somehow or the drugs you took to manage it. And you're sleep deprived, which makes everything worse, and who has time for CBT to fix these thought distortions? Also infancy is a time when complete strangers and your entire extended family feel qualified to tell you how to run your life and parent your child. For those that are indecisive and have cognitive fog (ie: those with depressive symptoms with bipolar), this can be all too much.

I struggled so hard and knowing what I know now, I might look to transfer to drugs I would feel more comfortable with. I would not do pregnancy with lamictal again (then again, I don't plan to do pregnancy again, I can't do early childhood).