Hi everyone,
I am due to give birth any day and am really worrying about having a relapse after she is born. I have been told there is a 30% higher risk? Does anyone have experience of this or any advice?! :0) Thank you
Emma
hi emma
please don’t let worry spoil the birth of your baby.
it’s a maybe not a definite relapse.
even if it IS a relapse, worrying will not stop it from happening.
get your rest emma
then have a happy birth!
sniff your baby’s head for me because i love the smell and it is reputed to be the elixir of youth!
carole xx
Hiya
The risk is when the pregnancy hormones drop at around 3 months after birth. I relapsed when my baby was 3 & a half months old and at the same time found out I was pregnant again. After his birth I got straight back onto tysabri as quickly as I could (baby was 5 weeks old). He is now almost 5 months and so far I’ve been fine. So my advice is to get back onto dmds as soon as poss. However, my ms has been described as severe and rapidly evolving so everyone will be different but I knew I would be bad as I was relapsing badly throughout my last pregnancy.
All the best & try to have an action plan to get on a dmd quick if you think you’ll need it, otherwise try not to worry and enjoy your baby
Lorna
Hello,
So glad I found this Forum, I’m 37 weeks pregnant, was diagnosed in November 2013 and like Emma anxious about relapsing once the baby arrives.
I was diagnosed in Glasgow and the MS nurse there was a great support at the time, but now am back in East Anglia (Hertfordshire), am not due to see consultant until July. My vision in left eye has become more blurry and the MS nurse said to speak to GP as it’s probably a relapse.
Just wondering if anyone else’s vision deteoriated during third trimester? Also, Emma, how are you feeling now the baby has arrived? Lorna, hope you don’t mind me asking but what were your relapse symptoms and how are you feeling now, have you received any support from MS nurse?
I’m not on any meds at the moment (I was on copaxone, and then tecfidera in Glasgow) and was planning on trying to breastfeed and delaying going back on meds for 3 months, but now I’m not sure I should leave it 3 months after reading your post Lorna.
Any input would be great. Thanks lots
Becky
Hi Becky. My vision deteriorated during my third trimester. My vision in my left eye is ever so slightly blurry after a bout of optic neuritis back in 2012 but during the third trimester it got considerable worse. It freaked me out but it soon got better after my baby was born. I can only think it was down to my core body temperature being raised or something. X
Hiya
I had numbness and clumsiness then my eyesight went blurry but wasn’t too bad. When I was 5 months pregnant I had optic neuritis and went completely blind in one eye for 2 weeks. Then when I was 7 months I got vertigo & was so wiped out and sick I could barely walk. It’s because I was so bad while pregnant that I couldn’t risk not going back on tysabri asap.
How active is your ms normally? Its a gamble not to go on a dmd as ms is so unpredictable but its all personal choice and as long as you have a plan of action thats the main thing. Every pregnancy is also different as when I was pregnant with my 18 month old I was perfectly fine!!
I haven’t been driving since the bout of ON as I crashed the car before I realised my eyes were even bad! My eyesight seems to be alot better now but always gets blurry when I’m tired, ill or have exerted myself (even a short walk).
The ms nurses were ok, not brilliant. I find I have to keep asking to get things done and research and arrange alot of things myself but ms care is different everywhere. I have an appointment with my neuro on the 16th and will have to remind him to arrange an mri for me and to get my titre levels checked (as I’m on tysabri) as these should be done every 6 months as I’m at a higher risk of pml while on tysabri but I don’t rely on them to just arrange these things as they probably wouldn’t bother if I didn’t say anything!
Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and the birth 