pregnant mamas on zoloft or ssri's....did you wean for 3rd trimester?

[tzs]

i've been going back and forth in my head about whether i want to slowly wean off zoloft for the 3rd trimester (for that rare pulminary condition.) i am 28 weeks now and would start at 30 weeks to be done by 32.

my OB isn't all that adamant about it since it's such a rare condition so he mentions it and leaves it up to me. i take zoloft and also a benzo for anxiety & panic attacks related to agoraphobia. obviously he's rather i be off the benzo the whole time but it's a risk/benefit call and i stayed on it the whole time my first pregnancy and throughout nursing. but with dd i weaned off zoloft right away knowing i might do it anyway in the 3rd trimester and thinking that it wasn;t really doing much for me. well, i turned into a total nutcase/ball of nerves by the end. couldn't walk into a grocery store without having a panic attack etc...i'm sure part of that was first-time stress too. i started the ssri again right away after birth.

so this time i'm not sure. part of me says that it's only 8 weeks and i can just deal with that short amount of time. and maybe the anxiety wouldn't even increase.

the other part of me says that so far things are going fairly smoothly and i shouldn't risk the anxiety for such a rare complication, especially now that i have a toddler to take care of as well. and just knowing that i was off the zoloft might make me worry myself into an anxiety state (i know my craziness pretty well by now.)

so what are YOU doing or have you done as far as weaning off ssri's for the 3rd trimester? 

[Heather Lyn]

Hi,

I was on 150-200 mg of Zoloft for years and have been on 75 since I found out I was pregnant (it took me a full year to go down to that dose before trying to conceive).  My doctor is recommending that I stay on it for the rest of the pregnancy, and I think I'm going to.  I don't feel great about it, but personally I think the medication risk to my baby is outweighed by the risk of me having debilitating anxiety/post-partum issues during the last trimester and immediately following the birth.

What I'm more concerned about right now is breastfeeding while on the medication.  Do you have any thoughts on that?

Thanks!

Heather

[tzs]

from what i've heard zoloft poses no problems for nursing. i started right back up after giving birth AND was also on a benzo as well. they look for sleepiness in the newborn more with the benzo but we never had any issues. nobody batted an eye at nursing on zoloft, but it might depend on the dose as well. (and i mean, i might not have minded some extra sleepiness ;)

you can always check out dr. hale's breastfeeding website. there's tons of info on there. i would wonder if stopping the ssri for nursing might be MORE of a problem in terms of withdrawl for the baby (since they've been exposed to it for 9 months in the womb) but i dunno......