I have not been had a child, but when I first was diagnosed with epilepsy my neurologist asked me if I was planning on having children. He stated that depakote er is a very bad med to be on if you are pregnant. I would suggest you finding out if you are, and if you are seeing your physician immediately to see what the possibility of changing meds would be for you.

Blackcat

Hi there! Great info. I get sooo disgusted when we are honest about our pre-existing illnesses, have you tried aaa medical insurance, they did not act as bad as some of the others when I told them I had a pre-existing illness, even though I do understand it to a point I also feel it is disrimination and not our fault, they would not even give me off the job work loss compensation because of multiple pre-existing medical problems and my union would not even fight it for me and anyone can get hurt off the job but thanks for letting me vent anyway!
He very best to your wife , children and yourself. I hope that each day gets better and better for her!

And to jennifer, I hope that you have a happy and healthy baby, if that is what you want! Gentle hugs! Keep in mind too that meds can work differently on most people, I always flt that their was a 50% of anything happening with any pregnancy.

Yes I have had 2 children.I was diagnosed with having epilepsy the day after I had my first daughter.The year after I accedently got pregnant and didn't discover my pregnancy untill I was 5 months gone.I had an easy birth with my son.He was born with 6 toes on eachfoot.At 7 months old he succesfully had these removed.My medication,epillim,phenytoin and lamictal had a slight inteference with the development of his teeth,he had to have 7 removed.Then last year he had to have a small operation to have his testicals lowered into his groin.He is fine now and only time will tell if it has had any affect on his fertility.Hopefully not.Apart from this,both my children are fit,healthy and happy.
Good luck!! :d

Don't let the fact that you have seizures stop you from experiencing childbirth! I've had seizures for 25 years, during this time I have given birth 3 times -- 2 daughters and 1 son. I won't say it will be without worry. According to the medications you need to take to control seizure episodes during pregnacy, there can be certain risk to the unborn child. This is the norm if taking any medicaion during pregnancy.

I was taken phenobarbitol when I gave birth to my first 2 daughters and I had only been on felbatol 1 year when I got pregnant with my son. My last pregnancy was extremely hard (especially not knowing what might happen to my unborn child). At that time, felbatol had not been tested for it's effects during pregnancy. I became the "human ginnie pig" or at least this is the way I felt. The weight of what could be was always on my mind. But, what I can say is, there is a god! Today I have a wonderful boy, who is 10 years old. His only problem is that he is 2-years delayed (in every area) -- but he lights up any room he walks into!!

Yes, I was stressed while pregnant; but, it was worth it all!