Pain meds and pregnany?

Hi all,

Wondering if anybody has had problems with pain medications during pregnancy? Or anybody went off theirs for pregnancy and how they coped?

I am not pregnant yet but we are hoping to try next year. I am on 60mg Cymbalta, 800mg Gabapentine and 10mg Norspan/Bupenorphine.

I am worried about how I will deal with pain and medications...

Hi Cass and welcome,

My nephew's wife was on pain meds while she was pregnant. They were prescribed by her doctor who knew she was pregnant. The baby was born addicted to painkillers and had to be kept in the hospital for quite a while to wean him off them.

I'm really not sure why anyone would want to do that to a child, life is hard enough without being addicted at birth.

Thank you for posting that Tina, I was about to say the same thing. It is obvious that the best medication to take during pregnancy is no medication. Howevver, I am sure you were just like me; you did what you had to do to ensure the best outcome for your babies. And I am also sure that, like me, if it was only about YOU being comfortable you would have gladly just suffered with the pain. Ok, enough about me! lol I look forward to your thoughts/experience on the subject.

Hi Matt! Well, even though you are a man, you hit the nail right on the head! lol Seriously though, all of the things you mentioned can be detrimental to an unborn baby. My baby's heart rate was soaring and I began to go into preterm labor - all because my pain levels were remaining at a solid 7, with flares of 8, ten+ times a day, and that is not an exaggeration. There were other signs that my baby was in distress. I tried meditating. I even tried accupuncture. It very quickly became obvious that I could not waste any more time trying other 'modalities' - we had to do something that we knew would work. Within an hour of taking my pain medication (I had already tapered off of my pain meds), things started turning around. I have ARD (adhesion related disorder) and spinal issues.

Hi Cass,

It's good that you are looking into this subject now... and learning all that you can. Unfortunately, I know all too well about pregnancies and medications. I've shared many times about my pregnancy w/ the twins - but I'll quickly recap (sorry to those of you that have heard this 100 times, lol).

Because I had numerous health issues and so forth - I had been told I was unable to conceive after our last son. So, I didn't find out I was preg w/ the twins until about 10 weeks in. I went to the ER for severe vomiting, lol. Anyway, at the time - I was on the equivalent of about 600+ of morphine. That was the first thing I said to the ER doctor.... through tears - was "look at all of the medications that I'm on".

I had numerous doctors in my area refuse to see me. The high risk doctor in my city wanted to stick me on methadone and be done w/ me. I didn't want to do that.... I wanted to taper off of my meds and come down as low as I could go. He insisted that I wouldn't be able to do that. So, I had to go to a well-known hospital - about 1.5 hours from my house (often going in 2 times per week).

The high risk OB team.... the neonatologists... and pain management docs... all agreed that it was better for babies if I stayed on some level of pain medications. I did taper WAY down; in fact, at one point - my OB tried to get me to stop coming down any further. The lowest I got was about 20mg or so of morphine a day.... although, at the end, I was getting daily IV dilaudid as well.

The girls were born at 36 weeks - which is far longer than they thought I'd go w/ twins. The girls, although small, were healthy - despite the odds. They were only in the NICU for one week, mostly just because they were small and to make sure they were maintaining their temps. They did not exhibit any withdrawal symptoms and were monitored VERY closely for this. And they have had no long term effects.... they've met or exceeded all milestones.

I've said this before on here.... you can never tell how a situation will go. You can have a mom who is addicted to methadone, etc. - and her baby is born perfectly healthy.... then you can have another mom who needs an occasional Vicodin for pain control, and the baby be born opiod dependent.

That's why I believe in arming yourself w/ as much info as possible.... finding good doctors that will work w/ you during your pregnancy and so forth. There are medications out there that are safer than others during pregnancy. You'll need to know all of these things. Many of the nerve meds aren't safe.... as well as muscle relaxers. The uterus is a muscle and, by "relaxing" it.... it creates an unsafe thing for baby.

Well, I gotta go give these babies a bath! But I hope I've given you food for thought. It's a big decision, especially when you have chronic health/pain issues.... but, as I said, the best thing to do is educate yourself and make an informed decision w/ your partner and team of doctors. If I can answer any other specific questions - don't hesitate to ask.

Take good care... --Tina

This topic reminded me of something that happened long ago and I just wanted to share it. Me, mrsm123, Tina, we all agonized over the decisions we were faced with - we were scared, unsure, nervous, etc. But I had a "friend" many years ago who was pregnant with her first child. I went over to her house one day, walked in, and there she was snorting a line of coke. She's smiling and she told me to come feel her belly, that her baby was kicking up a storm. Well, after I picked my jaw up from the floor, I laid my hand on her belly and sure enough he was kicking away. I literally couldn't even speak at first. Then I asked her (with MUCH different words than I write here) what the heck she was doing. She said (while laughing - I'm not kidding), "Oh, it's ok - I'm past the first trimester!" I left soon after and the next day I called DCF. I had to. I just could not live with myself if I didn't. Believe it or not, they closed the case within a week. They didn't even drug test her until 3-4 days after the first visit with her - by then she was clean. I eventually found out that not only did she use coke during her pregnancy, she also dropped acid several times and she smoked pot. She did these throughout her pregnancy. By the time she gave birth, I had long cut ties with her but because it was a small community I knew what was going on. I could not believe it but she went full-term and gave birth to a 9lb, perfectly healthy baby boy. She could not wait to call me to say "Told you so!" Now WE know that it was luck, divine intervention, whatever - but to her it meant that you could do all of those things and still have a healthy baby. However, sadly (for the babies), in the coming years she had several miscarriages and a (very) pre-term baby.

I didn't mean to 'hijack' this thread, I just wanted to share this. I know it's different in that she did illegal drugs, but it was just on my mind so I posted about it.

Cass ,

One thing that I did not mention and wanted to was this, all of my doctors were pleased at how I was able to taper off and in most cases "cold turkey" off many of the meds that I was taking at the time. However, one thing that all of them said was that for some, in fact many people, find that their body is able to tolerate much more pain or their pain levels abate during the pregnancy, and then either stay low after delivery or can come back with a vengence once the pregnancy is over and hormone levels return to their pre-pregnancy state. For me, my RSD did not worsen, which was the fear for my case was that it would worsen and spread, but the belief was that the hormone levels help the body to adjust to the additional weight and effects the brain's interpretation of the pain signals in a positive way.

I saw doctors at the biggest hospitals around me, and regularly saw my ob and perinatalogist as well as my pain management doctor.

The worst part for me, as I said was what my son went through...and there is no way to prepare yourself for that, but we had some wonderful doctors in NICU and nurses, who were there with my husband and I every step of the way and none of us were ever treated badly.

Whatever your decision is, educate yourself for all of the outcomes as best as you can, make sure that you work with your doctors and the hospital that you will deliver at, and hopefully everything will be okay....

Sandi