Being pregnant

By Abbie

2 minute read

For me my main fear about being pregnant was hurting the baby. Normally living with epilepsy your main fear can be hurting those around you. But you can help those around you understand the risks. Having a baby who is relying on you to grow and live is a big responsibility. They can’t understand or remove themselves from the situation. So you have to understand the risks of being pregnant with epilepsy. It helps you to understand and navigate the situation. Medication was a big scare and it was helpful that I went to the doctors as soon as possible to change medication. Also for me personally, pregnancy had a big impact on my seizures and I spent a lot of time in hospital. The doctors were amazing and helped me a lot with the emotions I was feeling.

I worried ‘Am I hurting the baby if I have a seizure?’ As long as you’ve got oxygen and make sure you’re not holding breath, the baby will be OK. Talk to you midwife if you have any concerns.

"The doctors were amazing and helped me a lot with the emotions I was feeling."

The best thing that I got told when I was pregnant, is that if you have a seizure your baby doesn’t really feel it. Because the baby is in water it feels to them like you’re walking really fast, it doesn’t hurt the baby. Even if you have a tonic-clonic seizure, so long as you’re in a safe environment and you’re in the recovery position the baby will be OK. Make sure you’re in a safe environment and if you feel a seizure coming on, get somewhere where your belly is safe. It made me feeling better as I felt that I would hurt the baby in some way.

The midwives were just so understanding. It was amazing how many midwives wanted to learn about epilepsy when I was in hospital. In a weird way it made me feel quite nice that they wanted to know about epilepsy.

My advice would be to be open about how you’re feeling with your partner, the midwives and at work. With epilepsy it can be a fearful, so call somebody up and talk about it. That was a big milestone for me in my pregnancy. I could talk about how I was feeling and be reassured that as long I was in a safe environment then the baby was OK.