Epilepsy and pregnancy

Course and outcome of 200 pregnancies, deliveries and post-partum periods of 127 women with the onset of epilepsy before or during pregnancy were compared to clinical form of the disease, frequency of seizures and antiepileptic therapy. in addition, 104 children born to 97 mothers with epilepsy, 85 children - from the moment of birth to 1 year old and others from 1 to 16 years old, were studied. The particular attention was focused on the early neonatal adaptation. It was shown that, along with the last weeks of pregnancy, the first 7 days period after the delivery was critical for epilepsy severity. The development of seizures at this period was related to sleep deprivation and marked hormonal changes. There were no significant changes between the body mass of newborns of mothers with epilepsy and those of healthy mothers. The period of neonatal adaptation in children of affected mothers was favorable in 46% of cases. Some peculiarities of a child's state (withdrawal syndrome, hepatitis A etc.) were mostly related to the treatment of a mother with high dosages of antiepileptic preparations, i.e. valproic acid. These disturbances vanished to the age of 1-3 years. In summary, the active supervision of women by an epileptologist during the pregnancy period allows to optimize the prognosis of the child's health and better course of epilepsy in the mother.