Antidepressants during pregnancy?

Anyone here have experience being on antidepressants while pregnant? I'm hoping to start a family soon, and while the general consensus among doctors in my doctor-heavy area seems to be to continue treatment through pregnancy... I'm scared. Anything you can relate would be helpful.

It depends on the meds. They can't do tests on pregnant women, so the info they have is from years of women reporting what meds they were on while pregnant and if the child was born healthy. Some are definitely not recommended to be taken during pregnancy, others are iffy, and then there are the safest anit-depressants to be on (if you must be on any).
I was off my meds for the first 6m. and then couldn't take it any more. I was crying and the depression was debilitationg. Usually, I'll feel that way within 3 days of being off my meds, but it came on so slow during my pregnancy. When it hit, I tried to hold out as long as I could and I went on a low dose of Effexor XR. I normally took 150mg, but while pregnant I alternated 37.5mg and 75mg every other day. It was the lowest amount I could possibly take and receive any benefit. It was minimal, but knowing it wouldn't last helped a lot. Thankfully, my son was born 9/24/07, healthy.

When my mother was pregnant she continued taking her meds & my brother is a slow learner because of it. Not retarded but close to it. So from my experience I would say if you can stand being off them then don't take them during pregnancy. If you do take meds during pregnancy then there's always the chance that something could go wrong for your baby. I wish you the best.

Even if you don't take meds, things can go wrong.

I am 11.5 weeks pregnant. My doctors (pdoc AND ob/gyn) decided that it would be safer for me and baby to stay on meds. An unstable mom can, and often is worse for baby than a medicated mom.

That said, some meds are definitely safer than others, so do some research of your own, and go from there

Most docs are comfortable with SSRI's (other than paxil). Which meds are you talking about?

I needed a mood stabilizer, so I switched to Lamictal for my pregnancy which has good data on safety due to the fact that many people take it for seizures and cannot get off of it.

I've done a lot of research and had a lot of consultation on this, so I'm happy to share the knowledge if you have specific questions.

best,
EJ

Thanks all. I've done a lot of research, but I would feel a lot better if I heard from someone who had actually DONE it. I know the available stats and have sifted through the primary literature, and I've heard from people I trust that it's most advisable to stay on the meds that I am on (either citalopram or fluoxetine, I may switch, plus bupropion). What I'm missing is hearing form someone who's actually gone through it. My issues aren't so much the kind that can be resolved by facts, but more the comfort of knowing that it's probably going to be ok.

I obviously took a different med, but my kiddo turned out fine. My BFF took Celexa and her kid is good too.

Did I worry and feel guilty the whole pregnancy? Heck yeah. I think that is normal and somewhat unavoidable. One thing that helped me is that I did get off my meds prior to getting pregnant with the hope that I could be med free. It was hell and I quickly became suicidal, and the docs and I decided this wasn't viable and I got back on ASAP. However, having that experience made me realize that I really and truly benefitted from and needed my medication. Keeping that in mind helped some. If you aren't going to attempt to go off, perhaps you can think back to your life pre-meds and think about how much better it is now.

Do you have specific fears or concerns?

Another thing that really helped me was having a supportive pdoc and OB. A previous pdoc had been quite unkind and unsympathetic to me when the idea of pregnancy came up. I replaced him with someone who could support me in my desire to have a child.

Good luck!
EJ

P.S. I know you didn't want medical advice, but just FYI, my docs really emphasized taking just one type of med. It sounds like you are planning an SSRI and Wellbutrin? You might ask your docs to see if they agree or disagree with mine. Just thought I'd mention it because my docs felt strongly about it.

I'll sound in as another person who took meds during my pregnancy and my daughter was better off for it.

My pregnancy was unplanned (I was on birth control) so being bipolar, I was on lithium when she was conceived. Lithium is a definite no-no when pregnant so I quit cold turkey the moment I realized I was pregnant. My doctor and I knew there was no way I could make it through the entire pregnancy unmediated so I started lamictal in place of my lithium. For me it did not work as well as lithium but it was better than nothing.

About half way through my pregnancy depression really set in. My pdoc wanted me to go on an AD but I was reluctant and just plain scared to take any more drugs. I didn't want to hurt my baby. Both my pdoc and my OB assured me my baby would be okay and that there are actually risks such as low birth weight, etc for babies born to mothers with untreated depression. I reluctantly agreed to start Effexor XR.

My daughter was perfectly healthy when she was born. She is 8 1/2 years old now and has been a consistently healthy kid. Also, she is an extremely gifted kid. The only learning difficulties we've experienced with her is trying to keep up with her and keeping her interested and challenged rather than bored. So I can safely say that the medication I took during pregnancy did not impact her cognitive abilities in any way.

I know it is a scary decision to make. I hope you're able to get the information and stories of others' personal experiences that will allow you to make a decision you're comfortable with.

Thanks fort this, it helps A LOT. I think you're right that the guilt is probably going to be unavoidable. One of the things that frustrates me is that I don't quite have specific concerns, it's just a vague fear of doing the wrong thing for my possible future baby. I think it touches on various issues that a lot of us have going on meds in the first place. Feeling like I'm making things up and I don't really need them and it's selfish for me to be on them while pregnant if I don't really need them, and so on, things I would never say to someone else but use to shame myself. I think what happened to you would happen to me, too -- trying to quit and being promptly reminded of how much I benefit from meds.

It just helps to hear from a human that no, it's not really that much better for a baby for the mom to be as unhappy as I was pre-meds.

How awful. I'm glad you found someone supportive. Luckily, I'm in a medical community that's very supportive of women in this position. I'm trying to get a consultation with a local health center that specializes in women's mental health.

Thanks! And yes, thank you for emphasizing this. I saw a couple times in my reading that having two medications did increase whatever small risks there are, which is concerning to me. I'm hoping that I can check in with a specialist about that because it does worry me. My pdoc didn't seem to concerned but I'm not sure how much experience she has with pregnancy and medication specifically. So I do appreciate your bringing it up.

This really helps a lot, thank you.

Thank you so much for this. It's very comforting. It's one of those things where I think I know what I have to do -- but as you say, it's pretty scary. I'm so glad your daughter is healthy. It must have been hard to make the decision to go on two meds, but I think it's awesome that you were able to make what was pretty obviously the right choice.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Sandy. I'm really glad it turned out well for you. It really is tough that the current knowledge about meds and pregnancy is often retrospective and can't ever be controlled very well... I think that's part of what makes me feel like I can read and read but don't quite feel good about it without hearing from someone who did more than just read and read about it.