Can epilepsy cause pregnancy complications?
In general, there is a two-fold increased risk of all the major complications of pregnancy, including stillbirths, eclampsia, spontaneous miscarriage and even the vomiting associated with pregnancy. Are women with epilepsy more likely to have children with birth defects? No woman, of course, is guaranteed a healthy baby when she becomes pregnant, and the risk of fetal malformation in a healthy population in the United States is 2 to 3 percent. For women with epilepsy on medication, the risk is increased two-fold. The increased risk is due both to the seizures and to the medications that we use to treat seizures. But, more than 95 percent of women who have epilepsy can have routine pregnancies and deliver very healthy children. The goal for a woman with epilepsy is to not have seizures during pregnancy and to be on the lowest dose of medication possible. It’s really a matter of weighing the risks and benefits both to the pregnant mother and the unborn fetus. What is the relationship bet
