Seizures during pregnancy

Many women will not experience a change to their seizure frequency during pregnancy. However, some women will have fewer seizures and around a third will have more seizures.

If you have more seizures during your pregnancy, this may be because the levels of the anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) in your blood have decreased. In this case, your doctor may suggest that you change the dosage of your AEDs, to ensure that you have as few seizures as possible during both pregnancy and labour.

Generally speaking, if your seizures do not increase when you are pregnant, the levels of AEDs in your blood will not be checked and the dosage of your AEDs will not need to be increased. However, it may be necessary to check the levels of AEDs in your blood if your seizures increase or you use certain AEDs. This is because the levels of some AEDs in  your blood are known to drop during pregnancy. This may lead to an increase in seizures.

Unborn babies are rarely harmed by their mother having a seizure, unless the mother falls and injures herself. Studies show that tonic-clonic seizures carry a higher risk of harming the baby than simple partial, complex partial, absence or myoclonic seizures, but this risk is still low. The more seizures the mother has, the higher are the risks of damage to the baby. Status epilepticus (when seizures go on for a long time) is rare, but this can be harmful to the mother and her unborn child.

To reduce any risks to you and your unborn child, it is advisable to aim to be as seizure free as possible during pregnancy. You can help to do this by taking your anti-epileptic drugs as prescribed by your epilepsy specialist and talking to your family doctor, midwife or epilepsy specialist about any seizures you have.

November 2008

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