Depression Medication During Pregnancy

I haven't written for a while because...well, I just don't care. However there's a topic that came to my attention that I never really thought was that controversial until I saw a news story on it and read a few other blogs online: taking depression medication while pregnant.

First of all, if you're a guy and pregnant and taking depression medication there are just too many messed up things to count, so I will push that subject aside and let you deal with it without my opinion (and you're probably happy I'm not stating it). Nevertheless this has been an ongoing issue with women. To see some good information about it go to the following link:

http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-safe-to-take-antidepressants-during-pregnancy_2343.bc

One thing about depression medication is it can increase the risk of health problems in unborn children. Some things include:

- Asthma
- Inconsistent heart fibrillation
- ADD (Just a note, I swear I have ADD and I turned out fi...hey look a bird!)
- Learning disabilities

Look at the warnings, first any site you read says that medication can "INCREASE" the risk of the health issues and others. The medication does not CAUSE the health defect to happen, and it's not guaranteed to happen. Yes, there are risks to any type of prescription medication. In fact, there are risks of natural pills and medications also. Pregnancy makes a woman's body so sensitive to certain types of indigestible (is that even a word?) items that doctors warned my wife of:

- Grape seed extract (natural)
- Vitamin C (natural)
- Airborne (good stuff, claims to be natural, but who cares it works!)
- All natural herbs

All of these things are suspected (it's never been concluded) to cause harm because the items have not been tested thoroughly. So even "natural" things can increase health defects during pregnancy.

Second, lets take a look at the effects of depression on a child in the womb at the following link:

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/depressionduringpregnancy.html

If a mother consumes depression medication during pregnancy studies so a slight increased risk (less than a 1% added increase) to the different health risks listed above. The mother isn't depressed and the child has a low risk (FYI - my wife takes Wellbutrin and I'll discuss that further, but there is only a .04% increased risk with her dosage). If a mother does not take the medication she is depressed, can ruin her own body by starvation, suicidal thoughts, stress, etc. while the child is also susceptible to those outcomes. I wish I had a percentage for those risks but I don't, so I can't confirm if those are more common or not, but seems to me that a mother not taking care of her body at the same time would be more detrimental to the baby's health because of the lack of nutrition and stress related illnesses that can pass on from the mother to the baby.

Let me give you an example. I mentioned earlier that my wife takes Wellbutrin (spelling? I'm a PE teacher, I don't have to spell correctly). When we were first married she was on Prozac and took Xanex here and there for panic attacks. She asked her doctor what to do because we were going to start trying to have a child. He (being the idiot he is) told her to go straight off her medication and not take anything because it would cause too many problems. My wife trusting someone who thinks he's a doctor went straight off of her Prozac, and it was a turn for the worst. She was not only depressed, but she was completely lifeless. This effected me as well. Instead of going back on Prozac and to that same idiot that thinks he's smart, she asked her current OBGYN (Brian Watabe in American Fork, UT, he's awesome!) for his recommendation, which was Wellbutrin. The medication did not take effect on my wife for six months because it is such a low dose her body had to really fight to see it was there (Wellbutrin is considered the weakest of weak depression medications at the dose she has). However, before she became pregnant her depression was conquered by the medication and her strong will power. During her pregnancy she was happy, the baby is fine, and the depression medication actually helped her beat postpartum depression after our baby boy was born.

My conclusion, depression medication at low doses is the best decision. Going off medication can cause damage to the mother and the child. High doses increase the health risks listed above, however, they are still only around a 4% increase. All those people saying that women are poisoning their children by taking medication need to look at the research and facts before making judgements. Going through depression during pregnancy effects not only the mother, but also the child, spouse, other children, etc. My wife is currently pregnant and taking Wellbutrin again, and everything will be fine.