Antidepressants while pregnant

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. I haven't posted in awhile, but I try to read the posts

that interest me on a daily basis.. A little bit of background for

reminder... I am now 1 year post-op from VBG. I am also 12 weeks

pregnant with baby #1. When I first found out I was pregnant I asked

all my doctors what I should do about the Prozac I have been taking for

quite awhile now. I've been on antidepressants (have tried just about

every one of them until the last year or so when I found Prozac works

the best) for about 10 years. In the past I have found that whenever I

tried to taper off of them, I would become severely depressed and

basically several different doctor's said that it is because I truely

have a chemical imbalance and am probably someone who would be on

antidepressants for the rest of my life to regulate. So I came to terms

with that, however when I became pregnant, I asked several of my

doctor's (my primary physician, my psychiatrist and my OB) what I should

do and I got 3 different answers... primary physician said " it

shouldn't hurt " , OB said I could continue taking them, psychiatrist said

to stop and give a trial without...... so I went with what the

psychiatrist said because I thought maybe she knew something that I

didn't... like how I'll be sooo happy during the pregnancy that I

wouldn't get the depression that usually comes with not taking any meds.

Ok, that was about 8 weeks ago. I've been off for about 8 weeks. Now,

I'm not *REAL* depressed, however I feel down more than usual. I'm very

irritable all the time with my husband and family. And I even had one

friend say that I seem sort of bi-polar lately (one day super happy,

next day crying over nothing). So I just made an appointment to see

the psychiatrist this afternoon and I guess I'm going to try to go back

on. I do remember the psychiatrist saying that if I needed to be on

anything, that Prozac is the best one because of the very low incidents

of side effects, especially to the baby...

Does anyone have any experience with all this? Any words of wisdom? I

would especially like to hear from someone who may have already had a

child while on an antidepressant.......

Thanks for listening.

Robin Irwin

VBG 9/17/03

Starting wt: 293

Current wt: 232 (keeps going between 229 and 233, w/ 229 being my lowest

prior to pregnancy)

Goal wt: 165

EDD: 3/25/05 w/ #1

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/13/2004 5:28:01 PM Central Daylight Time,

robin@... writes:

> Does anyone have any experience with all this? Any words of wisdom?

>

I was on an anti-depressant for three years before my surgery and was able to

go off a year and a half after surgery. I thought that I was " o.k. " but

during my second trimester, my therapist recommended that I go back on the

anti-depressant. I wasn't necessarily depressed, but my mood swings were more

frequent and I was having bouts of anxiety. It's been two and a half months

since

I've been on Prozac, and the difference is like night and day. I plan on

staying on it while I breastfeed as well. (ONE MONTH TO GO!)

Mommy to Duel 5/28/97, Caitlin 1/13/99, and Caris Marie 10/11ish/04

OPEN RNY 12/11/01