Hi,
Just found out i'm pregnant . I'm afraid to take my litihum because of possible birth defects but i'm also afraid that i'm not taking my medication for obvious reasons. I know i have to see my doctor ASAP but untill then any advice from someone who has been in this situation ? I'm really happy that i am pregnant but the risks are weighing on me right now. This is my third night without meds and i probably won't get to see my doctor for another 5 or 6 days.
Thanks,
Milla

Mila, my girlfriends daughter (bipolar) had a baby ay 19...she had to stop all her meds during the pregnancy...got thru the pregnancy. baby was fine and went right back on all her meds.....good luck and god bless.

Can you place a call to your doctor or his/her assistant so that he/she could answer your question and call you back? I know that my doctor and his assistant do things like this regulary. Just an idea. Then that would help you be able to relax about things.

Thank You :)

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond . I will call my Docs office, and i'll try to relax
:angel: Milla Rose

Update:
Turns out I was not pregnant at this time. If I was it was not for long so I guess we'll call it a false positive on the preg test.
I have an 8 week old girl now though !! :):)

Hey how have you been the past 8 weeks?

I don't want to scare you but women with bipolar often have one of their worst era's after giving birth. So just have that in mind and tell someone close to you to keep an eye for it.

i became pregnant and i was on equetro (a mood stablizer) lexapro and wellbutrin (anti depressants) my doctor took me off the mood stablizer but kep me on the antidepressants and my daughter is fine. the nurses at the hospital wouldnt let me breastfeed though....which i thought was stupid considering i took my medicine through my whole pregnancy...but after i went to my psychiatrist he tried to convince me to have an abortion because i was only 18 and im bipolar... but i guess he was just trying to help...anyways good luck, congrats and i hope this helps

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 (I can't think of many that would sign up for that study), on what possible effects there are on the baby. The same goes for breast-feeding.

It was a tough road for many reasons 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.

I found other ways of dealing with the depression. I began to bite down on my hand pretty hard, though not hard enough to break the skin, and if things got really bad I would have a cigarette and it would help calm me. I really hate that I did that, but it was that or something worse. In the end there were no issues with his health in utero or birth weight. He was a big fella, 8 lbs 12 oz, and that was after I had lost 38 pounds during the pregnancy.

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.