As you may or may not know, I am bipolar. That’s majority of what this blog is
about. I wanted to create a place where
other moms (bipolar or not) could turn to and see that they aren’t alone in
their struggles as a mom. Everyone is
fighting their own personal battles and sometimes it just helps to know that
you aren’t alone and that someone else is fighting as well.
I am fighting a true battle right now. Being bipolar and pregnant. I did try to take precautions before getting
pregnant being that it was planned, but I don’t think I gave myself long enough
to sort through the issues before getting pregnant. Here is the back story. I went to my psychiatrist in December ’14 and
I told her my husband and I planned to start trying for another baby and that I
wanted to make some adjustments to my medications. I was on 2 medications. The 1st is Abilify, which I’ve been
on since 2006 and the other is Lamictal, which I had been on since I was
pregnant with my son in 2010. I asked
her to wean me off of the Lamictal because I had been told in the past by a
different psychiatrist that it has been known to cause cleft pallet in
babies. Imagine my shock hearing that
news after I had spent 6 months of my pregnancy on that medication! So my current psychiatrist took me off of
that one. My next request was to lower
the dosage of the Abilify. I was on 25mg. So she took me down to 20mg in January ‘15. Then I was pregnant by February ‘15. So my next step was my 1st prenatal
visit. I went in and saw a nurse
practitioner, which is standard practice in my OB/GYN office. She informed me that when taken in the 3rd
trimester or while breastfeeding, Abilify can cause major issues for the
baby. The most pertinent issues would be
withdrawals at birth and the medication passing through the breast milk to the
baby. So of course this raised some
major concern on my part and the part of both my obstetrician and my
psychiatrist. So about 2 ½ weeks ago, my
psychiatrist lowered the dosage of my Abilify to 15mg. All is not well.
Last weekend and the early part of this week were extremely
ROUGH. I had mood swings
GALORE!!!! It’s the most unnerving thing
one can experience and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I will be perfectly fine one moment, then the
next, something sets me off and I’m completely freaking out. I am either crying and sad or angry and
irritable. I somehow seem to cycle
between type I bipolar (manic depression) and type II bipolar disorder
(hypomania aka rapid cycling). I don’t
know clinically how this works or if doctors even see it as being possible, but
I know how I feel and I am extremely intuitive with my own emotions especially
with regards to my disorder.
Monday of this week I saw my obstetrician and discussed my
issues. His only suggestion was to go
back on the Lamictal I went off of in December ’14. There’s a classification system for
medications during pregnancy. A, B, C, D
and X. Class A medications are deemed
safe during pregnancy, like prenatal vitamins.
And class X medications should never be taken during pregnancy, like
certain narcotics. I've included a chart below with some information. All psychiatric
medications are in a class C. There’s
not enough information to know whether these class C medications are safe, but
nothing terrible has been reported, basically.
So most doctors views all psychiatric medications the same. Testing these medications on humans is
considered unethical. His decision to
put me back on Lamictal was based on the fact that it worked well for me in the
past. So I am on the lowest dosage they
make of that medication. Fingers crossed
that it works. It’s been 3 days.
I have learned a lot over the years when it comes to controlling
my moods and keeping myself centered.
But this pregnancy has really tested me thus far. I think once I can get my meds under control,
I’ll be fine. I’ve come to find, though,
that once this disorder takes a hold of me, it’s extremely difficult to feel in
control of anything. But by getting the
help I need with my medication, I’ve taken control. There are many ways to take control of a
situation and they don’t all require the strength of 100 women, mentally or
physically. Sometimes knowing when to
ask for help IS taking control of your situation. Sometimes you just can’t do it all on your
own.
