American Epilepsy Society Says Pregnancy Is Ok For Sufferers

Epileptic women can have healthy babies and their pregnancy will be safe if they follow some guidelines recently published.

Obviously the whole gestation period would be carefully monitored but there is no reason for a woman to opt out of childbirth.

The American Epilepsy Society along with the American Academy of Neurology have presented the procedures that if followed as much as possible will help ensure that a woman can mother healthy baby to full term.

In America four in every one thousand babies are born to those suffering from epilepsy and the information, which can be found in the Neurology journal, will provide much needed reassurance to females who have previously felt that pregnancy is too risky for them.

The key factors are to give up smoking, only take a single drug to control the epilepsy and avoid three different medicines.

The latter have been linked to problems related to the growth of the baby in the womb and serious risks to the newborn baby as it develops.

The chemicals to stay away from are Phenobarbital, valporate and phenytoin and a good neurologist will advise a woman just what medicines she should consider while her body makes all the changes involved in carrying a baby.