Epival and pregnancy

Hi there,

I am on Epival to treat Bi polar II and have been since november. It is working very well for me and I hade a tubal ligation in July in anticipation of going on these meds as I know they have a caused birth defects. I am now 7 days late and have an appointment with my doctor on tuesday but I was wondering if anyone has expereince with a pregnancy on epival and if the baby and mommy were both ok?

I have 2 children premedication who are very healthy and as you can imagine had not planned on having anymore,

I just had my second child and when I found out I was pregnant I was taken off the meds. It was a better safe than sorry. While women have gone through pregnancy on some of the medications for bipolar and depression there are still not enough studies done, and there probably won't ever be enough studies done, to show that the med is safe to take during pregnancy. I can't think of many that would sign up for such a study and take that risk. Some may end up being just fine, but there is no way to know for sure what short-term or long-term effects there could be on the baby. The same goes for breast-feeding on these medications.

It was a tough road for many reasons (that is a whole other story) and the bipolar only added to the misery. I was told that if the depression got to be too severe, and it did, I was to call my doc and he wanted me to undergo ECT. Don't get me wrong; the doc didn't want to do this unless it was absolutely necessary. I was told that this is the safest, or at least proven to this point to be the safest, treatment option while carrying a baby. I must say that the idea scared the crap out of me. I didn't call. I know that the patient is put to sleep and given a muscle relaxer and therefore the patient is no longer at risk for pain or injury to themselves from the resultant seizures and therefore neither is the baby, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of memory loss and complications from the anesthesia.

Whatever you do know your options, know the side effects, and know that no matter how tough it is you are carrying your child inside you. No matter how we feel about ourselves it stops being all about ourselves when are pregnant. Thinking about it that way helped get me through it.

So congrats if you are pregnant. I don't really plan on having any more, 2 boys are enough, and I’m not clamoring to go through another of my pregnancies again. I haven't gotten a tubal ligation, but I have an IUD that is supposed to be as effective only not permanent. Then again not even sterilization always works.