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pregnancy and keppra
Tue, 12/27/2005 - 13:01Topic: Women With Epilepsy
Hello everyone
I am 28 years old, female, with JME. My doctor has switched me from Depakote to Lamictal and now Keppra. I take Keppra 1000mg a day. Is there anyone, who is on Keppra, who is pregnant or who has had a baby. There is a ton of information of Lamictal and pregnancy but not much of Keppra and pregnancy. My husband and I want to start planning for a family, but we are VERY nervous. My ob/gyn put me on a prenatal vitamin and extra folic acid. I would appreciate any information from anyone.
-aspepath
Comments
Re: Re: Re: Re: pregnancy and keppra
Submitted by sbrobin on Tue, 2007-05-08 - 14:59
I haven't been to this forum in such a long time! I thought I would post an update on my pregnancy/baby with Keppra. I last posted when I was 8 months pregnant... I now have a healthy boy turning one on Mother's Day. I have JME and was on 2000mg Keppra during my pregnancy. I had a doula and wanted a natural birth and my OB was very supportive. I had quite a few NST's and other tests (can't remember the names) close to the end because my OB was worried about cord compression, but that had nothing to do with Keppra. I didn't want to be induced so I put up with frequent trips to the doc to make sure the baby was healthy. I delivered a healthy baby boy in 6 hours with no pain meds (woohoo). I tried to breastfeed for a week before I got so frustrated and switched to formula. My milk didn't come in until after I quit breastfeeding (5 days after birth). My son was starving, dehydrated, and lost 17 ounces so we gave him formula. I had read somewhere that mothers had low milk production due to anti-seizure meds - I can't remember if it was Keppra specific or not. I had also read that he might not tolerate what little bit of meds he was getting - he was soooo frustrated, but that could also have been due to my flat nipples and he couldn't get a good latch.
After complete lack of sleep the first week and tons of JME jerks my neuro upped by Keppra to 3000mg. I called my doc freaking out because when I have jerks I drop everything and I was sooo scared of dropping him. I've been on that for the last year with no jerks. Even still I used baby slings and wore him a lot. Of course now he's a big boy and gets around on his own.
Now that life is less stressful and I'd like to get pregnant again this summer, I'm trying to get back down to 2000mg since that worked fine for the first baby. I hope this info helps! Won't know any long term effects for a while since Keppra is so new.
Re: pregnancy and keppra
Submitted by Trichica on Sat, 2010-03-27 - 23:24
Hi SbRobin. I would love to hear more about your case with Keppra during your 1st pregnancy and hopefully your second one. I just got diagnosed with generalized seizure disorder. They started when I was 19 and until last year, they only took place once time every 4 years. After I had my son in October 2008, lost my job and got diagnosed with postpartdum anxiety - I had my 1st seizure. I was put on Lamictal but had a seizure after 3 months and despite increasing the dosage I had another incident a month later. Since then I have been on Keppra 1500 extension version a day. I have just completed my 1st 6 months seizure free until this morning when I had my f1st with Keppra. I am waiting for my dr to call me back but I was planning to start conceiving before my 37 bday. I would like to hear your experience on Keppra and pregnancy and how your kids have done so far as I will likely be having my next child under Keppra...Plus, wonder what your thoughts are about pursuing this pregnancy plan at this point?
Re: Re: Re: pregnancy and keppra
Submitted by debtay3 on Sat, 2007-02-03 - 18:40
I too have been following this blog. What is interesting is that nobody from the orignal conversations have responded. I do hope all is well. To answer your question: In 2001 Keppra was added to my mysoline,& topamax. I did not know I was pregnant and it would be to dangerous to take me off. My partial complex seizures are still uncontrolled at night ( while i sleep). I was petrified!! Someone was watching over me. I now have a 4 year old spit fire perfect little girl. I also have a perfect 15 year old teen boy. Topamax and mysoline only. And a 6 year boy who does have ADHD, Speech and some developmental delays. I believe mysoline (which has phenobarb.) is the culpret. Take a deep breath and remember to love unconditionally. I wish you all the best. debtay3