Hello everyone,

I came across this group while I researching on the web and thought I should share my personal experience with Paxil's dangers for anyone who may be taking or considering Paxil while pregnant. My sister took Paxil during her first trimester while pregnant with her second child. She was told, like most people, that the drug was safe and that the benefits (alleviating her anxiety) outweighed any risks presented by the drug. She thought that the only major concern was withdraw, which would allegedly disappear after several days of getting off the drug.

Her little baby girl, Angelica, was born on January 12, 2005. Everything appeared normal till she started to turn blue. The doctors werent sure what was wrong. They ran some tests, and within hours, she was transferred to NICU. Her heart was reversed and had a hole between the walls, so she was not getting oxygen to the rest of her body. Angelica had open heart surgery within 1 week of birth, and is scheduled for another sometime soon.

We recently realized that one month before Angelica was born, the FDA increased the warninig on Paxil, meaning that you shouldn't take it during pregnancy unless you absolutely have to. The reason they did this is because the maker of the drug released studies showing that women who took Paxil during pregnancy were 3 times more likely to give birth to children with heart problems, like Angelica. My sister was hysterical after learning about this---she still blames herself for taking the drug, but no one ever told her that the drug was dangerous to the baby. We later realized, through our lawyer, that Paxil's drug maker had known about the dangers since the mid 90s, but didn't tell doctors so that they could keep selling the drug.

I'm sharing this with you all so that you can avoid what has happened to my sister and my family. No one in our family has ever had heart problems or any other factor that increases the risk for heart problems. The only explanation is that my sister took Paxil in the first trimester, which I was told is when the heart develops.

My sister hired a lawyer and brought a lawsuit against the drug company. There are alot of other people who did the same thing.

I hope this helps and that no of you have to go threw what weve been going threw. I'm obviously not a doctor, and I know that people like my sister need to take something to help their anxiety, but please talk to your doctor about taking something other than Paxil. I know that there are other drugs like Prozac that arent supposed to be as dangerous to the baby.
If you do need help or have questions, you can email me. Also, my sister's lawyer is handling a lot of these cases, so they know more than I do. The law firm is called Fitts Zehl.

I wish you all the best.